Barn full of memories

Within this feature the Dairy Star catches up to retired farmers and talk about the highlights and struggles they had when dairy farming. The feature includes how each individual farm changed throughout the farmer’s career and what each has been doing since they hung the milkers up.

Tom and Cindy Frensko
Ivanhoe, Minnesota

What year did you start farming and what year did you retire? Tom was born and raised on the dairy farm that his dad owned along with his grandfather. They also milked cows on the farm, and we milked the Holsteins. Tom was one of five boys along with his five sisters who helped on the dairy. Tom was milking cows in the fall of 1968 as an eighth grader because his dad, Cecil, hurt his leg. Tom and his younger brother, John, were responsible for milking cows. Tom was also raising pigs as his brother, who had the pigs, went into service. In 2012, we sold 15 cows to a local dairy farmer, and another big group of 50 went to Wisconsin. We had 15 we milked until we culled them in 2013. Tom kept one cow to milk for fresh milk until 2014.

Tell us about your farm when you started and describe what it looked like when you retired, including how many cows did you milk when you retired? Tom and I were married in 1974, and we lived in the old house on the dairy farm until 1976, when we bought Uncle Danny’s farm, which was a half mile from the dairy. On the dairy were Tom’s dad and his brothers, Dennis, John, Greg and Tom. On our farm, we had pigs and stock cows. In 1987, when Tom’s dad passed away and two brothers wanted out, Tom and I started to milk morning and night. We had a 3-unit high line system. The parlor was built in 1957 with three cows on each side. We added cement to the barns so the feeding system was under a roof. We usually milked about 60 cows. The Holstein heifer calves were replacement heifers, and the Holstein bull calves were raised as steers that we fed out. They fit well with our stock cow calves.

What were some of the big advancements you made during your career? We upgraded the parlor to a 6-unit low line and added rubber mats on the cement for walking.

What did you love about milking cows? The best part of milking was in the spring, summer and fall, as we could leave the door open where the cows exit. I took pictures of the calves and gave them names, so those cows had their own personality. Tom liked to spend quality time with his family during milking.

What was the highlight of your dairy career? It was getting low cell count and quality award for our milk.

What is the biggest challenge you faced in your career and how did you overcome it? We were going to build a parlor and barn on our place for 120 cows in 1990. It would have cost us $300,000 to build, so we did not improve where we were milking the cows.

If there is one thing you wished you could have done differently during your farming career, what would it be? Why? We wished we would have built a new milking and freestall barn because we had a new well dug, a lagoon, dirt work moved and had plans for the set up. We didn’t follow through but we should have.

What piece of equipment or technology has been introduced that you wish you had for your dairy career? The robotic milker would have been something to explore.

What do you miss most about dairy farming? What we missed most is talking with our dairy people. Milking with the kids was time well spent. We have five kids, and while the boys would milk, they were more into field work and haying with Dad. The girls milked cows with Mom when the hay needed to be cut and made.

What advice would you give to a young farmer today? For young farmers to get into farming; there are too many regulations, and the cost of everything is so high.

What is your tie to the dairy industry today? We have no ties to dairy today.

Was retiring an easy or hard decision/transition? When the buyer called to see if we could milk the cows early and load on a semi-truck, I said, “Sure can.” We milked them and loaded them up to take into town, where there was a loading ramp. The last cow was loaded and the lights on the semi headed down the highway Dec. 3, 2012. The next morning, the buyer called to say all the cows made the trip just fine. That was so good to hear. Tom really didn’t want to quit, but milk and cattle prices were low. We got about $1,450 to $1,500 each. The last cow we sold was the one Tom milked for his fresh glass of milk. We got $1,800 as a cull cow because the market went up.

What have you been doing since you retired? We have 125 stock cows we calve out, and we raise feeder calves and fats with our son, Bill.