Barn full of memories

What year did you start farming and what year did you retire? I started farming in 1974. I attended the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire for a year and a half before enlisting in the U.S. Army for three years. I then formed a partnership with my brother, Mark, and my dad, Andrew, to establish Noll’s Dairy Farm. About six years ago, my everyday work on the farm slowed down due to a fall that left me with limited mobility. Now I help where I can.

Tell us about your farm when you started and describe what it looked like when you retired, including how many cows you milked when you retired. When we started farming, we had 735 acres of land with a herd of 70 Holstein milk cows. In April 2004, Mark and I formed a partnership with my son, Scott. Since then, we have a 100-stall freestall barn and a concrete bunker silo for corn silage. We also have a new milking center with a double-8 parallel parlor, an office and a break room. Farming has changed since I first farmed in a stanchion barn.

What were some of the big advancements you made during your career? When I was in my last year of high school, a major expansion for the farm was adding eight more stalls to the back end of the old barn and installing a pipeline system. That was just the start of our expansions, with many more to come. In 1978, we added a machine shed, and in 1979, we built the farm shop. In 2000, we moved into a double-8 right-angle parlor and added our freestall barn and a new-style calf and heifer raising facility. We added a manure pit and bunker silos during that time as well. Dairy farming is such a family business that we wanted to continue to build up to help set up the future generations for success.

What did you love about milking cows? The way it helped us unwind after a busy day in the field. I really enjoyed it after a day in the hay mow. I remember a day when my brother and I baled 18,000 square bales of hay and straw, and that time in the barn with the cows was just a great way to relax from the day. It was a little slower paced.

What was the highlight of your dairy career? The highlight of my career was watching my children at the county fair. My wife was very heavy in 4-H as a kid, and we carried that on with our four children. For 22 years, we had a Noll in the show ring at the county fair. It was great because it was something we could do together as a family. There aren’t very many jobs or careers where you can bring your children to work with you every day, and I got to do that as a dairy farmer. Spending time with my children, and now my grandchildren, on the farm is something I’m thankful for.

What is the biggest challenge you faced in your career and how did you overcome it? A challenge for us came when we decided to go with the freestall barn and milking parlor. It was a longer transition period. As we were putting in the parlor, we had to milk in shifts and chase after cows while we were in the old barn. It was more time consuming and it was a slower way of doing things.

If there is one thing you wish you could have done differently during your farming career, what would it be? I wish we had left the 74-stall barn much sooner than we did. It made daily chores very laborious and definitely took its toll on our bodies.

What piece of equipment or technology has been introduced that you wish you had for your dairy career? I wish we could have used a total mixed ration sooner. After we built the freestall barn, we shifted our feeding to a TMR and it worked well. That became what I was in charge of. Every day, no matter if it was the Fourth of July or Christmas, my day was almost the same.

What do you miss most about dairy farming? I miss the sense of belonging that came with every day on the farm. There were always three of us working. Whether my dad and my brother, or my brother and my son, we worked together and had our routine and our jobs.

What advice would you give to a young farmer today? My advice would be to do things in steps and watch your debt load. Dairy farming is a tough way of life, but the many rewards you will realize later in life will make you feel very proud of what you accomplished.

What is your tie to the dairy industry today? In November I relinquished my spot on the board with Associated Milk Producers Inc. I learned from my father that you have to know when it’s time to quit, and that time came for me. I’ve been a delegate or alternate delegate for 40 years. Now I hope I can be someone that young farmers can talk to and pick my brain. If I had the knowledge I have now when I was 24, I’d be one working machine.

Was retiring an easy or hard decision/transition? It’s been tough. It affects you mentally. The routine I had while I was on the farm has changed. There are things you want to help with and know how to do, but physically you cannot do them. That’s been the toughest part.

What have you been doing since you retired? Because of my health situation, I am very limited in helping physically on the farm. Most of my time I spend on a zero-turn lawn mower, which is almost a full-time job.