Farming organically before it was cool

MAPLE, Wis. — Near the Lake Superior shoreline, Jon and Tracy TePoel have made their living caring for their cows and land in the way they believe is best for both.

The TePoels milk 100 cows on their Douglas County organic dairy near Maple. The farm includes 450 acres of devoted pasture for cows and youngstock and the TePoels harvest hay off another 450 acres. They also grow oats for feed.

The TePoels were certified organic in 1997, but because of their location, it was nearly a decade later when they first gained an organic milk market in 2005 with Organic Valley.

“We made the decision to farm organically because we wanted a more stable price and, really, we wanted healthier cows,” Jon said. “We really don’t have any health issues anymore.”

The first seeds of transition were planted in the early 1980s, Jon said, recalling his father’s struggle to grow alfalfa.

“We’d put in new seeding, do everything according to the university recommendations, and we wouldn’t get a catch of alfalfa,” Jon said. “We had an agronomist come in, and he leaned more towards the sustainable. We went sustainable and quit buying commercial fertilizer. Now all we use is liquid manure, and we break our pen pack down into black dirt that we spread on the fields. It’s worked for us for decades.”

With sustainable cropping practices in place, the next prompt towards organic production came in the early 1990s.

“It was so wet, we couldn’t get out to make hay,” Jon said. “I opened up an 80 and let them graze. I liked it. Before that, we had them out on a 20, but that was it, and we would still feed them in the barn. After we started grazing a little, I started seeing some changes that I wanted to see more of.”

The TePoels completed their organic transition with faith that eventually an organic milk market would become available. Once they secured their market, they convinced several dairy farmers in their area to transition to organic production. Today, three of the four remaining dairy farms in Douglas County are organic.

“We were organic, before organic was cool,” Jon said. “It just makes sense. Let the cows be cows — let them make their own hay and haul their own manure.”

The TePoels began using Fleckvieh bulls to breed their Holstein cows several years ago, at the suggestion of their milkman. The resulting animals convinced them to continue. Jon estimates the majority of the herd is now three-quarters Fleckvieh.

“The vitality has been bred right out of the Holstein cow,” Jon said. “Fleckviehs are a German breed, and very sturdy, almost like a high-producing beef cow. They digest forages really well. They may not peak as high, but they milk well and they maintain that production steadily throughout their lactation.”

The farm’s pastureland is divided into six paddocks. In line with their overall philosophy, the TePoels let the cows tell them what they need.

“We let them tell us when they need to move to a new paddock,” Jon said. “Just the other night, they kept milling around. When I went back there to feed the calves, they just stood at the gate and looked at me like, ‘OK, we’re ready to move.’”

During their growing season, which typically runs from mid-May until mid-October, the TePoels cows are completely grassfed, with no supplemented feed. As the grazing season winds down, or if pasture is insufficient, the cow ration is supplemented with haylage and ground oats in late October.

“I don’t really believe in feeding cows corn; they aren’t really made for it,” Jon said. “I had been feeding a mix of barley and oats, but I ran out of barley and couldn’t find any, so I went to straight oats, and the cows actually went up in milk. Oats are easier to find and it’s better for the cow. It keeps their feet under them.”

The TePoels are pleased with the production they get from their herd, with cows that produce as much as 20,000 pounds of milk per lactation.

“I don’t push the cows,” Jon said. “I let them do what they do, and they work really well.”

The TePoels moved away from A.I. and started to use bull-breeding in the 1980s. After years of Holstein genetics, they transitioned to using a Fleckvieh bull with their cows and an Angus bull with their heifers to promote calving ease.

“When I was younger, I can remember we would be up until midnight, sometimes, breeding cows,” Jon said. “With a bull, if there’s a little imperfection in the cow, she’s still getting bred. That’s why we went to bulls; I figure just leave it to the experts.”

The TePoels source their bulls from other herds. They have been impressed with the temperaments of the Fleckvieh bulls they have had.

“The last bull we had so long, he would have been starting to breed his daughters,” Tracy said. “We sold him to the neighbor and he used him for three years. We’re going to do the same with the one we have now. We’d never be able to do that with a Holstein; they just get mean so fast.”

When selecting bulls, Jon said his primary concern is feet and legs.

“If you don’t have good feet and legs, you don’t have a cow,” Jon said. “I want cows with a big middle — with wide, open ribs. If they don’t have a big stomach, they’re not going to milk. This last bull we got is also A2A2, which I think is going to be important; that is what people want.”

While they were relatively early to the organic game, the TePoels are encouraged to see more farmers looking to become organic, both for economic and environmental sustainability. They believe the precepts of organic agriculture contain the secret to the future of the dairy industry.

“Farming is more than a job; it’s a way of life, but it’s one we’re losing,” Jon said. “I read something that in the 1960s, Wisconsin had more than 105,000 dairy farms. Now we have around 5,000. That’s sad. There is something wrong with our industry. We all know what is wrong, but no one knows how to go about fixing it. I think it’s simple — let the land and the cows take care of themselves.”