Sustainable traditions

ALMA, Wis. — The banks of the Mississippi River present a unique opportunity for farms in Wisconsin’s Driftless region. Scott Noll of Five Star Dairy Farm LLC embraces what comes with the territory and uses sustainability practices to continue to preserve that precious land.

For these efforts, Five Star Dairy Farm was awarded this year’s National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management program’s Excellence Award for Environmental Stewardship.   

“I’m honored and humbled to receive this award,” Noll said. “Sustainability is who we are. My grandpa got that started and it was important to him. I farmed for a lot of years with my uncle and my dad, where we kept that focus. I want to continue that same legacy for my children.”

Noll milks 100 cows in a double-8 parallel parlor and farms 350 acres. Farming those acres while situated on top of a ridge less than a quarter of a mile from the Mississippi River presents challenges. The farm earned its outstanding stewardship reputation through no-till farming, cover crops, and nutrient management to prevent erosion on this hilly terrain.

To take care of the land, Noll uses an unconventional method of smaller fields with a rotation of corn, soybean and alfalfa, and cover crops. On average, each field measures less than four acres.

“Our main goal is to keep as much of the ground that’s here, here forever,” Noll said.

Cows are housed in a freestall barn that incorporates sustainable measures as well by using sand reclaimed from the Mississippi River to bed the stalls.

“There’s a great big pile down by the beach where my kids play baseball and softball,” Noll said. “That’s where all the sand for us and some other farmers around here comes from. We pay a little bit for trucking, but it works really well. We’ve been doing that since we built the freestall barn in 1999.”

The farm’s traditions of sustainability were born in 1929 when the farm was started by Noll’s grandpa.  Noll’s father, Curt, and his uncle, Mark, continued the tradition that has permeated throughout the farm’s existence. 

“Everything we do in relationship to stewardship is a way that I’m trying to continue the legacy that my grandpa started and that my uncle and dad did such a great job of,” Noll said. “I want to continue on the standard they’ve set for our farm. They laid the groundwork for us to receive an award like this, and without them doing what they did, we wouldn’t be getting awards like this.”

Mark and his son, Greg, planted a dry bluff prairie, adding berms in an attempt to restore natural grasses. Twenty earthen dams are also located on the farm.

The farm protects more than just the soil of the fields but also the neighboring woods that bring the Noll family together every November for deer hunting. As many as 30 family members visit Five Star Dairy Farm during hunting season. Protecting the woodlands is just as important as the farmland, Noll said.

“We still have a lot of people who come back for deer hunting in Buffalo County,” he said. “It’s all family members, and that’s huge for us. We do a lot of little things to protect the land. Anything that takes care of the land for the future, we try to do.”

The land is no stranger to sustainability recognition. In 2023, the farm, then called Noll Dairy Farm, was awarded the Leopold Conservation Award, which honors farmers and forestland owners who go above and beyond in their management of soil health, water quality and wildlife habitat on working land.

Noll purchased the farm from his dad and uncle in 2022. Prior to purchasing the herd, Noll had been a teacher at three neighboring school districts for 26 years. He balanced education with farming, but seeing the toll that farm life had taken on the older generation, Noll knew it was time to return to the farm full time.

“We’re a typical family operation,” Noll said. “My dad and uncle have been great role models and have put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into what we have here. I’m just hoping that I can be lucky enough to continue that for my children.”

Trying to cement a legacy for his children came more into focus last March when Noll was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The initial scans showed a lump on his pancreas with spots in his lungs and liver. After 12 rounds of chemotherapy and additional medication, Noll has been stable.

“I’m feeling the best I’ve felt for an awful long time,” Noll said. “I don’t have it in my liver at all anymore. That’s the hard part; you don’t really know how long that thing has been growing. Between chemo and the medication, we’re keeping it under control. I coach my kids in sports, and I compare it to us winning the game, currently.”

A father of five children, the vision for Five Star Dairy Farm is clear and visible with a framed sign in the farm’s shop, which also serves as headquarters for the family’s annual hunting excursion.

It reads: Children are our legacy. Our responsibility. They are our destiny and we are theirs. The extent to which we fail as parents, we fail as God’s children.

“That’s been hung up there since my grandpa had the farm,” Noll said. “That’s something I live by. When I’m gone, what’s the legacy that I’m going to leave, and I’m hoping that the things I leave for my children are better than what I had.”

After his diagnosis, the kids who were already active on the farm played an even larger role. Seeing the passion that his youngest child has for the farm is what drives Noll to continue to steward the land.

“All my kids help a lot,” Noll said. “Without them, I wouldn’t be able to keep doing what I’m doing. Farming has always been fun, and it’s the best place to raise kids. I’m so blessed — blessed by the efforts of the generation before me and blessed to continue those traditions for the next generation.”