Finding love in the dairy barn

SHAWANO, Wis. — When he headed to his 4-H leader’s farm to learn how to prepare his dairy calf for the Shawano County Fair, David Laatsch expected to come away with some newfound knowledge. What he did not expect was that he would meet a young lady named Betty who would capture his heart.

“All the other girls had blue jeans and barn boots on, but this one gal — she stood out,” David said. “She had golden red hair, a white blouse, pink pedal pushers and white tennis shoes on.”

Smitten by the sight of the young redhead, David said he had a hard time concentrating on the lesson at hand. David said he originally thought the girl might have been the daughter of a friend of his father.

“A young giffer like me, I started thinking,” David said. “She was pleasant to the eye and her dad had a barn full of registered cows.”

David laughed at the recollection, while his wife, Betty, smiled.

“Turns out she wasn’t my dad’s friend’s daughter,” David said. “I didn’t speak to her that night at the 4-H leader’s farm; I was too shy.”

David would get a second chance to talk to the girl who had occupied his thoughts in the days leading up to the fair. When he arrived at the fair with his calf, Tally-Ho, he was told to tie her next to the calf that belonged to the red-headed girl.

Betty said she was also smitten by the 16-year-old boy, when he finally got up the courage to speak to her.

“He was pretty sweet, I thought,” Betty said. “I didn’t expect to meet my husband at the fair that year, but I sure did.”

David said he soon realized Betty was indeed a keeper when she rescued his hat.

“At the end of the fair, I was tying Tally-Ho onto the truck and she was trying to smash my fancy straw hat,” David said. “I took it off and threw it over the side, then I wondered if I’d just thrown my hat in the water. When I got out of the truck, there Betty stood holding my hat. I knew right there she was special.”

From that meeting in the dairy barn at the 1966 Shawano County Fair, David and Betty Laatsch made plans to begin building a life together.

Their marriage was delayed, first by a farming accident David suffered just before his 20th birthday. Then his family dealt with his father’s health issues and his death in February 1971.

Following his father’s death, David worked with his mother, continuing to operate the farm founded by his family in 1942.

Having already stood by each other in good times and bad, the young couple finally said their vows July 17, 1971, nearly five years after their first meeting at the fair.

Together, they have spent their life dairy farming, raising their five children — Doug, Phillip, Luke, Adam and Jessica — the same way each of them had grown up. The couple now has 12 grandchildren as well.

“I have spent my whole life there, working on the farm,” David said. “I never really worked off the farm.”

Betty began their marriage working in town at the local newspaper, but quickly became a full-time farm wife, working alongside her husband.

“Soon, Betty asked if she could stay home and farm,” David said. “I told her sure she could, so for 54 years, we walked hand-in-hand to the barn in the mornings for chores. The farm has always been a bond for us.”

At the time of their marriage, the Laatsches were milking around 50 Holstein cows, and they slowly expanded their herd. The most they ever milked was 70 cows.

“We worked together as a family,” David said. “Every spring we made maple syrup with our children, and we still do.”

From watching their children grow up on the farm, show at the fair and play high school sports to now watching their grandchildren enjoy the same experiences, the Laatsches agree life has been good to them.

“It’s not something a lot of people get to do anymore, staying home to raise their family and work their farm,” Betty said. “Now someone has to leave the farm to get a job off the farm, for insurance or even just to make ends meet. It’s a whole different world.”

In 2023, David and Betty began moving towards retirement, consolidating their herd with the herd their son, Luke, operates next door with his wife and her family. David still cares for the youngstock at the home farm and continues to keep busy doing field work.

“My dad loved to combine with an Allis Chalmers D17 and an Oliver combine,” David said. “I inherited that love of harvesting, so I combine corn, beans, oats and rye.”

At the end of the day, they are both grateful for the pair of Holstein heifers that led each of them to the Shawano County Fair in 1966.

David wrote a rhyme to tell their fair dairy barn love story.

“I’ve always liked to write my thoughts down; I have a little creative side,” David said.

The rhyme reads as follows:

“They told me to tie her next to Jetty; I soon learned she belonged to Betty. In 20 minutes, she asked if we could go steady, because she didn’t want to walk around the fair with Freddy. And steady we went, and here I am, married to the love of my life, because you just never know what prize you might win at the fair.”