Ensure a strong future for dairy

The future of the dairy industry is in our hands. That may sound daunting, but I believe today’s dairy producers have a responsibility to encourage the next generation of dairy producers and industry professionals. While there are fewer active dairy farms than in the past, the role that dairy plays in agriculture, nutrition and the economy is growing and, to keep our industry strong, we need the best and brightest of the next generation to choose a career in dairy.

The good news is that small efforts can make a big difference.

For more than 10 years, my family’s dairy, Soaring Eagle Dairy, in Newton, Wisconsin, has participated as a mentor farm in the Professional Dairy Producers Mentor Program. For dairy farms, it is a 1-day commitment to host a college or technical school student on the farm, and it can make a lasting impact on students considering career options on farms or in related dairy industries.

Each year, students sign up through PDP and are paired with a mentor farm. They coordinate a full day to visit the farm, usually over the student’s winter break. At Soaring Eagle Dairy, students spend the day with me and my niece, Kelsey, to experience our daily operations with a focus on cow and calf care.

We try to schedule mentor visits on Tuesdays when our veterinarian is at the farm for herd checks so they can see ultrasounds and learn from them as well. I show students the technology and systems we use to run the farm, including DairyComp and SCR Allflex monitoring systems we use to track animals and monitor heats, rumination and more.

Some mentor program students have grown up on a farm and are looking to experience another operation, while other students have never been on a working farm at all. No matter their background, they’re all eager to learn and willing to get their hands dirty, helping with cow and calf care throughout the day.

After their day on the farm, our commitment as a mentor is technically finished, but I always try to attend the mentor program breakfast held for mentors and students at the annual PDP Business Conference in March. It’s a great way to reconnect with students and hear from dozens of other students about their experiences, too. The energy and excitement about the future of dairy is contagious.

Soaring Eagle Dairy also supports other programs to regularly educate and encourage young people, including sponsoring free chocolate milk for after-school programs at Kiel High School, supporting the Farm Wisconsin Discovery Center and Dairy’s Foundation. Sharing dairy’s story with students helps open their eyes to future opportunities.

Lifelong learning

Since the industry changes quickly, we need to always be looking for new practices, technologies and ideas to improve our skills and strengthen our teams and operations. Lifelong learning can take many forms, including the learning involved in adopting a new product or practice on the farm.

We recently added a monitoring system to improve heat detection and track rumination on our farm. It was a significant investment in time and resources, but it provides valuable additional information for herd-health decisions and management. We’re also continually researching and improving our land-care practices through buffer strips, no-till plots and more.

This commitment to ongoing learning, whether through hands on effort, conferences, formal training or mentorship, is essential. It’s equally important to give our team opportunities to grow. With people from different backgrounds working together, continuous learning helps us communicate effectively, build stronger relationships and understand diverse perspectives.

Finally, lifelong learning makes us better mentors. We don’t have to know everything to help someone else; we just need to be willing to share our experiences, answer questions and learn from each other.

Stacy Klotz is herd manager at Soaring Eagle Dairy in Newton, Wisconsin, where she farms with her family. The team includes Jim and Sandie Fitzgerald, Julie Maurer, Stacy and Jeremy Klotz, Nick Fitzgerald, Kelsey and Peter Luebke and Kelly Goehring. Soaring Eagle Dairy LLC was formed in 1997; Stacy joined the operation in 2000 after completing the Farm and Industry Short Course at the University of Wisconsin.