Building a breeding establishment

TONY, Wis. — The only person in the room surprised when Gary van Doorn’s granddaughter stepped up to the podium at the Wisconsin Guernsey Breeders’ Association convention to present him with the organization’s Pioneer Breeders award was Gary himself.

“It was a surprise,” van Doorn said. “My granddaughter, Isabelle, told me she wanted to take me to the convention. I haven’t been to the state meeting in years; normally, my son goes to that. I saw this Pioneer Breeders award in the program, with no name next to it. When Isabelle got up to head to the front, I realized what was up.”

Van Doorn has spent his lifetime breeding registered Guernseys. He milks 51 cows — a mix of Guernseys, Jerseys, Holsteins and Ayrshires — with his wife, Diane, and son, Steve, at Flambeau Manor, their Rusk County dairy farm, near Tony.

Emotion overwhelmed van Doorn he said when fellow Guernsey enthusiasts lauded him as he accepted the award from his granddaughter in March.

“It felt pretty good, especially when they gave me a standing ovation,” van Doorn said. “It was pretty nice, I don’t really know what the Pioneer Breeders award even involves, but I have been with Guernseys all my life.”

Breeding Flambeau Manor RO Lauren EX-95, a World Dairy Expo champion in 2014 and 2016, is a highlight of van Doorn’s career.

“We never did a lot of showing; we just didn’t have the time for it,” van Doorn said. “If it wasn’t for Steven’s interest in showing, Lauren could have been just another cow in the barn, hidden from everybody.”

Van Doorn has made many trips to World Dairy Expo, but he was not present to watch Lauren receive either of her final handshakes.

Cows at Flambeau Manor Farm are expected to fill the bulk tank and look good doing it van Doorn said. The farm has been home to several national production class leaders. A second “L” family, different from the one that produced Lauren, has transmitted breed-leading genetics.

Flambeau Manor Enhancer Lana EX-92, a cornerstone of the van Doorn’s breeding program, has had many descendants go on to make outstanding records and rank high on the breed’s top genetic lists. Lana descends from a calf van Doorn was gifted by his grandfather in 1959.

“She was out of the best cow in the barn at that time, a Curtis Candy Butterfinger daughter,” van Doorn said. “She was a heck of a brood cow, that’s where the Lana family came from.”

Guernseys have been synonymous with the van Doorn family since the late 1920s, when Gary’s grandfather, a Dutch immigrant, got his first Guernsey.

“Grandpa said he didn’t want any part of the black and white ones,” van Doorn said. “So, I grew up with 100% Guernseys.”

As time passed, the herd grew to about 45. After high school, van Doorn headed off to the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, where he completed a double major in dairy science and agronomy in less than four years.

“I’d come home on weekends and work on the farm, then leave after milking Sunday night to go back to school,” van Doorn said. “I was too busy for girls at school. I always said if the good Lord intended for me to marry, he’d have to put one in my lap.”

Divine providence did indeed land a girl at van Doorn’s barn door.

“I hired Diane to help me with chores during deer hunting one year,” van Doorn said. “I love to deer hunt, but trying to do chores by myself and get out to the woods just didn’t work. In the end, I thought it might be cheaper to marry her than pay her — boy, was I mistaken.”

Van Doorn chuckled, thinking back to meeting his wife.

“I’m very fortunate, I married a really good girl,” van Doorn said. “And she likes the cows. She’s not into the registered stuff, but she is supportive of what we do here, and that means a lot.”

While he was at school, van Doorn worked for Pixy Farm, a Jersey show herd in St. Croix County, which turned into an unexpected herdsman job following his graduation. While he was working there, the opportunity to purchase a farm near his family’s home farm presented itself.

“My parents frowned on me farming,” van Doorn said. “I was the first one to go to school. I had a 4.0 in both my majors in college; my advisor told me to go to Cornell for graduate school. They wanted me to do something that would be easier to make a living, but farming is an addiction.”

Van Doorn bought the current farm.

“I had 20-some grade Holsteins, which I couldn’t get rid of fast enough,” van Doorn said. “I had a bunch of Guernsey cows I’d accumulated, over at the home place, but I didn’t bring them over here until just before winter. I didn’t want to leave my dad high and dry.”

Van Doorn milked 40 cows that winter, working to make the farm fit his needs. More than 50 years later, he still considers it a work in progress.

“There’s some cosmetic stuff that should be done,” van Doorn said. “But it’s sometimes hard to find the money to do that stuff.”

Van Doorn admits his parents were probably right — there were easier career paths he could have followed.

“It’s terrible now, probably the worst I’ve seen in 53 years,” van Doorn said. “The milk check is the smallest it’s ever been; something’s got to change.”

At one point, van Doorn said the family was milking nearly 100, before reducing to a size easier for father and son to manage.

Despite the tribulations of farming, van Doorn said the cows have made it all worthwhile. He said he considers himself lucky to be living out his boyhood dream.

“My dream was to build a breeding establishment,” van Doorn said. “I didn’t want to just milk cows; I wanted to build families and pedigrees. I may not have a fancy place, but it’s more important what’s on the inside. You’d never know, driving by on the road, the national records that were made in this barn, that an Expo champion resided here, or the number of cows that have gone out of here and done well for others. I’m pretty proud to have been able to work with cows like that.”