Making a dream reality

ELMWOOD, Wis. — Brady Tiffany made the decision he was going to be a dairy farmer at the age of 5. It was neither an easy nor a fast path to his chosen career, but 25 years later, he is living his boyhood dream.

Dairy farming has long been intertwined in Tiffany’s family history, but in 2000, his father decided to head down another path.

“My dad and his brothers were milking 200 cows in a tiestall barn, switching cows,” Tiffany said. “When I was 5 or 6, my dad decided he was done milking cows, but I already had the bug. I knew I wanted to be a dairy farmer when I grew up.”

In May, along with his fiancee, Kaitlynn Wente, Tiffany turned on the vacuum pump in a rented barn near Elmwood for the first time, ready to milk his own cows. Today, the young couple is milking 30 cows at their newly established Thunder Ridge Holsteins, shipping their milk to Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery.

Wente said she is enjoying the role she plays in the fledgling dairy farm.

“I grew up outside of Menomonie, not on a farm, but I’ve always been interested in animals,” Wente said. “Once I could drive, I got into animals and worked on some farms.”

Seeing their children — Brantley, Silas, Kolton and Jaxon — enjoy the animals is what Wente said brings her the most joy.

“Watching the boys interact with the animals, the things they’re learning, that’s really rewarding to watch,” Wente said.

Tiffany spent his youth working first at his uncle’s farm and then at other area dairy farms, cultivating the inner desire to dairy farm. He continued with allied industry careers, including working as an AI technician for STgenetics and most recently worked at Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery.

“I’ve been building a small herd for a while, housing them at different places,” Tiffany said. “It was just time to make a decision — we either needed to jump in or reduce the number of cows we had. I had to sell a group of heifers that I would have liked to keep, but the places I had cows housed at were full.”

The sale of those heifers started the wheels in motion, and last fall Tiffany set about procuring a milk market, a barn to rent and the necessary financing.

“About the time I sold those springers, Matt (Breeggeman) asked me if I knew of anyone who could house some cows for him,” Tiffany said. “I told him there wasn’t, that’s why I’d sold my group of springers. I told him he should just rent me his barn, and that is eventually what happened.”

Tiffany then began looking for a few more cows to join his small herd in making enough milk to be picked up. He purchased a group of cows from a neighboring farmer he admires.

“Kenny Klatt’s farm was the first dairy farm Kaitlynn ever worked at,” Tiffany said. “He’s always bred excellent cows that perform well anywhere. Most of the cows we’re milking right now are from his place.”

The barn in which Tiffany and Wente are building their business had been without cows for just over two years.

“It wasn’t too bad, but things definitely have their quirks from the period of non-use,” Tiffany said. “The stalls are newer, the mats need to be done, but we can make do. We had to go in and redo all the stall cocks and Surge One Touch milkers had to be redone from sitting idle, and of course, the pipeline wasn’t welded the way it needs to be now, so that had to be done.”

The biggest challenge they have faced since moving in has been the barn cleaner.

“The chain was completely shot, so we bought a new chain,” Tiffany said. “It’s part brand-new and part from another barn — the brand-new chain doesn’t feed in right. We’re working to get that figured out before winter really gets here.”

With limited ground available at the rented farm, Tiffany is having to source feed from other local farms.

“I got lucky; there was a surplus of hay around the neighborhood, and I was able to buy my corn silage from my dad,” he said.

Tiffany hopes to eventually outgrow the rented facility as his dairy enterprise grows.

“I want to be big enough to be progressive,” he said. “It all depends on what we can find for a place to buy here in the future, what is feasible. But it’s easy to see the writing on the wall, what being successful in this industry is going to require. You always have to have a goal, something you want to work for.”

The herd that he has amassed consists primarily of registered Holsteins, which is where Tiffany said his passion lies.

“That’s my thing, that is what I’ve been drawn to, especially the Red & Whites,” Tiffany said. “My boys like to show now too, and it’s easier and cheaper to make show calves than to buy them.”

As he morphs from breeding and developing good cows as a hobby to the endeavor being the basis of his livelihood, Tiffany has continued to hone his breeding philosophy to meet his needs.

“I want to breed for a good mixture of production and type,” he said. “It works together. With the markets today, I’m looking to keep a good mix of production and components.”

Tiffany’s herd is currently averaging around a 4.7% butterfat test and 3.5% protein.

Despite the attractive payoff of black calves hitting the ground, Tiffany said he has limited his use of beef semen to the very bottom end of the herd to produce a larger number of heifer calves.

With his goal towards having a high-quality herd of cows, Tiffany  plans on continuing to breed for balanced, functional, productive cows.

“I’d love to someday have a barn full of Excellent cows,” he said. “But more importantly, I’d love to just have a barn full of cows, doing what I love doing.”