Heir to the farm

CALMAR, Iowa — In 2001, Ray Elsbernd, a third-generation dairy farmer, welcomed his son, Peter Elsbernd, back to the family’s dairy farm by breaking ground on a second milking facility to support two families.

Now, it is Peter’s turn to welcome the next generation. His daughter, and former Iowa Dairy Princess, Ashley Elsbernd, is the fifth generation at Elsbernd Dairy Farm.

The family milks 350 registered Holsteins, working alongside five employees.

“Growing up, I thought I wanted to be a vet,” Ashley said. “But I didn’t want to go to school that long. In the spring of my senior year in high school, I knew I wanted to come back to our farm. This is what I want to do, and these are the people I want to work with.”

Before returning to the farm, Ashley earned an associate degree from Northeast Iowa Community College while attending high school, and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in dairy science from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. While attending school, Ashley also worked for three other dairies, including a tiestall farm, a robotic farm, and UW-Platteville’s Pioneer Farm.

“Those experiences have helped me a lot,” Ashley said. “It wasn’t just getting off of our farm and getting experience; it was pulling from what other people are learning that works well, and what worked well for us when I came back.”

Ashley has taken control of her role managing the youngstock, using what she learned to continue to evolve the approach. Using those experiences, and continuing to work and learn from her dad and grandfather is pushing Ashley and Elsbernd Dairy into the future.

“I feel bad for my dad sometimes because I will follow him around and watch what he fixes, the way he fixes it,” Ashley said. “At some point, I would love to have something break, and I can tell them, ‘Don’t worry, I got this one.’”

Peter said working with each other makes the burden of managing the farm easier.

“We’re blessed that not one of us has to manage everything,” Peter said. “Splitting up the management is a big deal. It takes a load off of each other. I don’t have to worry about their parts, they have it handled. It’s never a sense of ‘I am your boss.’ We are very much a team; we all stand on equal footing.”

Bringing Ashley back to the farm is happening about a quarter of a century after Peter joined the operation.

Peter grew up on a farm that had been in operation since Ray’s grandfather owned it. With Peter returning to the farm, the operation needed to expand.

“A 60-cow dairy was not going to cover two family incomes,” Ray said. “It’s really hard to get land around here, so I knew we weren’t going to do any crop farming, but we had to have dairy to make it go.”

Ray had bought a neighboring farm in 1988, using the 120 acres for feed for his herd. That farm was the foundation for their new milking facility in 2001.

The Elsbernds drilled a new well, built their current milking facility, a double-8 parallel parlor, later expanded to a double-12, along with a new commodity shed and freestall barn. Eventually they built a house and finally a machine shed and calf barn, and the second site took shape.

“You hear horror stories of fathers that don’t let their son take over, or make any decisions,” Peter said. “This has been the complete opposite of that. We discuss everything. My ideas are listened to, and some of them we do, some of them we don’t.”

Ray said he appreciated bringing Peter on as a partial owner.

“I really enjoyed having another opinion,” Ray said. “There are things that people look at differently, and I’m glad to have that.”

That initial move to the new farm doubled the size of the herd to 120. They expanded again to 180, and another expansion brought them to their current number. With more cows, came more roles.

“After the expansion and moving up here, we kind of split off,” Peter said. “I was more with the cattle, Dad was with the crops and feeding. We conversed back and forth all the time, but that was his area, and I was the cattle and mixed a lot of feed. With Dad stepping away, I’m picking up some of his responsibilities, and Ashley is picking up some of mine.”

With Ashley’s return, Ray has taken a step back from the day-to-day operations, while also being there when needed.

“He still does all the fun stuff,” Ashley said. “He keeps us working on the things that we know we need to get done, but don’t always have the time.”

With Ray stepping away, it allows Peter and Ashley to find their own path in the dairy industry.

“My dad and grandpa are phenomenal about letting me figure things out,” Ashley said. “They trust that I have come from an education and come from two very strong leaders that I will be able to figure some of this out.”

When all three are working together, the stress level of dairy farming has seemed to dissipate the family said. The togetherness and fun of working together is part of what Ashley said brought her back to the farm.

“I just enjoy the people I work with,” Ashley said. “There’s not a whole lot of grudges that get held over. We move on and we know we have to forgive and forget and be able to just come in and crack jokes. It makes it more enjoyable.”

With Ashley on the farm as the fifth generation, Ray said he would not have it any other way.

“It’s fantastic,” Ray said. “I mean, what more could you want?”