Barn full of memories: Bob Eustice, Byron, Minnesota

Within this feature the Dairy Star  catches up to retired farmers to talk about the ups and downs 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.

What year did you start farming, and what year did you retire? I started dairy farming in 1982. I had worked for International Harvester Company for 10 years beforehand. Then, I came to the family farm of my wife, Diane. I sold my cows in 2009 after milking 90 cows for 27 years.

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 I started, I took over from my father-in-law, who had someone here on shares. When I came, they split the herd and I bought half the cows and heifers. When I came here, there were no registered cows. Through the years, I was very interested in genetics, so I developed better cows through genetics. By the time I sold my cows, all my herd was registered. In 1991, I bought six embryos and got five pregnancies and five heifers. The dam turned out to be excellent, and the sire — which was a young sire at the time — turned out to be a really good bull. When I came, it was a double-6 parlor, but right away, we gutted it completely and brought it up to date.

What were some of the big advancements you made during your career? I put in automatic take-offs for the parlor. We also started having a total mixed ration, and I improved our calf and heifer raising facilities.

What did you love about milking cows? I liked the cows and the improvement in genetics every year as I went on.

What was the highlight of your dairy career? My work with genetics. I had the No. 1 genomic polled Red & White Holstein heifer in the world around 2010. I ended up selling her at a sale in the outfield of Wrigley Field for $100,000.

What is the biggest challenge you faced in your career, and how did you overcome it? Cash flow. It takes so much money not only to live and operate but also to update and upkeep the facilities. Cash flow is always concerning because you’re always using that money for improvements or personal living.

If there is one thing you wished you could have done differently during your farming career, what would it be? I did most of the work myself with part-time hired men. I just put in a lot of hours to get the work done. I probably should have spent more time with the kids, and it would have been easier on the family if I had had more hired help to get the work done.

What piece of equipment or technology has been introduced that you wish you had for your dairy career? I don’t have any equipment or technology I wish I had had. However, one thing I have done since I sold my cows is that I started to sell sweet corn and peas, and they worked out well as alternative crops.

What do you miss most about dairy farming? I miss the working with genetics.

What advice would you give to a young farmer today? Get involved with a farmer who does not have someone to take over the farm. Through this, you can work for them and maybe work your way into the operation side, though probably not the land because of the prices. If you want to farm, that is the way you are going to be able to do it, because with the price of land and the volatile grain markets, it is too hard otherwise.

What is your tie to the dairy industry today? I follow all the economics of the dairy industry, and I follow genetics, so I am still involved as far as an interest in it. I also go to World Dairy Expo every year.

Was retiring an easy or hard decision/transition? It was easy because I was 63 years old; physically, it was getting harder to do, and I didn’t have anyone to take over. It was time.

What have you been doing since you retired? Right now, my two sons and I have about 70 beef cows I care for in partnership with them. I am also running 450 acres of crops, including alfalfa and grass hay — I sell a lot of hay to horse people. I also raise corn and soybeans, plus 50 acres of oats, 200 acres of sweet corn and 30 acres of peas. After I sold the cows, I was still doing genetics for several years. I would buy heifers and flush them for embryos and buy recipients to put the embryos in. Then, once the cows freshened, I would keep the calves and sell the cows. I did genetics from 1992 until about 2015.