Barn full of memories: Jim and Carmen Good

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? We started farming in 1972 and sold the cows in 2017.

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. We purchased this farm, complete, as a young married couple; we bought everything from the previous owner. We started milking 30 or 35 cows in a stanchion barn. We started using A.I. in 1975. Jim went to school to learn how to breed our cows. There was one silo for corn silage and no storage for haylage. We green chopped in the summertime and bought more land around us as it became available and we could afford it. We built three silos, three heifer buildings, a machine shed and a freestall barn and converted the old milking barn into a parlor. Of course, we also added cows and were milking 110 when we sold the cows. That is what the freestall barn would hold and what the land could sustain.

What were some of the big advancements you made during your career? The industry changed a lot from 1972 to 2017; we had to change some alongside it. We switched from making dry hay to haylage. When we started milking, we used Surge buckets. We started without even a step-saver at first. Eventually, we put in a pipeline, and after a while, we put in automatic takeoffs. Then, we built the freestall barn and the double-5 parlor. When we bought the land, it was very low in fertility, so we had to do a lot of liming and fertilizing. There was no tiling, so we tiled the farm.

What did you love about milking cows? We both always enjoyed milking the cows, working them and being in daily contact with them. We were small enough that we always knew each of the cows and their families — you knew this one was that one’s daughter and that one’s granddaughter. You could see the genetics. Our kids helped when they were growing up, but as we got older and had more cows, and after the kids went away to college, we had to hire some part-time help. At least one of us was always milking in the parlor, though. We did not push the milking off on someone else.

What was the highlight of your dairy career? Sometimes, we think it was just that we survived all those years and that we are still married. In all seriousness, it is hard to pick out a highlight. We have had a lot of good experiences. We raised two kids who went on to college and are both in ag-related careers. In 1982, we were selected as Wisconsin Farm Bureau’s Outstanding Young Farmers, and the next year, we were third for the Jaycees’ Outstanding Young Farmer. Jim served 22 years on our township board, including several years as chairman. Carmen also served nine years on Wood County’s Farm Service Agency committee.

What is the biggest challenge you faced in your career, and how did you overcome it? There were a lot of small challenges every day. We always felt that, if we took care of them, we would hopefully not run into a big challenge. We tried to address all the little things that happened in hopes of avoiding big challenges. We do not feel like we ever ran into any one challenge that we felt was going to make or break us. We made it through the drought of 1988, which was probably one of the hardest challenges. We also dealt with stray voltage issues, and we survived 20% interest rates back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. When we bought the farm, we did not know a lot of people in the dairy industry. We were young, and this was a new area. Maybe 10 or 15 years after we bought the farm, I read an article about the crisis in the dairy industry in the 1970s, and I remember thinking, “Gee, I thought we were the only ones in crisis, but I guess it was the whole industry.”’ So, probably the biggest struggle was that first 10 or 15 years, just to get started and try to make it and learn about everything.

If there is one thing you wish you could have done differently during your farming career, what would it be? In hindsight, we wish we had put up the freestall barn and parlor sooner. We built the freestall barn in 2000 and the parlor a couple of years later in the existing dairy barn. The free stalls made such a difference with the cows. Getting them out of the stanchions with small stalls, they just lasted longer. We had 60 cows when we put up the freestall barn, which we built for 110. We never thought we would fill it up, but we did. The herd just grew, even though we did not buy any animals. The cows lasted longer, and we did not lose heifers because they had beaten themselves up in the stalls. The parlor made milking easier for us. We saw higher milk production and felt like the cows milked out better and had healthier teat ends. We waited until we could afford to do it, but it is something that maybe we should have just done earlier.

What piece of equipment or technology has been introduced that you wish you had for your dairy career? We are still not connected to the dairy industry, so we are not sure what exactly we would have liked to have. More farmers are using their cell phones for weather updates and cropping applications. Cameras in the maternity pens would have been nice.

What do you miss most about dairy farming? I think we miss the daily contact with the cows and the baby calves. We also miss the relationships we had with the people who supported our farm. The veterinarian and the feed consultant were here every month, and the milkman was here every day.

What advice would you give to a young farmer today? We would advise them to watch their money and not get in over their heads. You cannot try to keep up with your neighbors. Know your own farm and do what is right and best for your farm; it probably is not the same thing that is right for your neighbor’s farm. Along with that, have a good relationship with your banker. Taking advantage of educational opportunities that are available is important, too. We took advantage of a 5-year program of night classes offered by Mid-State Technical College, which was very beneficial. Most of the people who took it with us re-enrolled for another five years when the first five were finished. We would also encourage someone looking to buy a farm they are unfamiliar with to take the time to learn about the farm. Find out what condition the soil and fields are in. Especially today, land is so expensive, so you have to know if that land has been maintained.

What is your tie to the dairy industry today? We sell hay, oats and barley to smaller farmers in the area. We stay connected to those farmers. A neighboring farmer rents our pastureland in the summer for heifers. We keep an eye on them and feed them a little bit of grain daily, so they get in the habit of coming home every day. This way, we can count them, make sure everyone is healthy and watch for heats. We enjoy having them here each summer.

Was retiring an easy or hard decision/transition? Selling the cows was a hard decision. We had planned to quit when we turned 60 and we did not; then, we planned to quit at 62 and did not. Finally, when 65 came around, we decided that, physically, we needed to be done. It was becoming harder to find help we could hire, too. It worked out that a neighboring dairy was getting ready to expand and was interested in buying the cows as a group, which is what we wanted. So, we knew in February that, by September, they would be going. That was actually kind of a hard time, knowing that they were going. It is nice knowing they went to a good home and that they were well cared for.

What have you been doing since you retired? We are not really retired; we are still on the farm, crop farming. We sell hay, corn, soybeans and small grains. We will keep doing this as long as our health is good.