Teaming up to keep the milk moving

After a week of above-average temperatures, Mother Nature took a swing at Wisconsin in the form of Blizzard Elsa. In a matter of days, many areas of the state set records for snowfall in March.

Snow totals across the northern half of the state exceeded the 2-foot mark, with areas seeing more than 30 inches, breaking single-day records.

Snow fell at rates as high as 3-4 inches per hour. The high rate of snow, combined with sustained winds exceeding 35 mph, made clearing roadways for necessary travel — including the transport of milk — nearly impossible. For the first time most can remember, the entire northern half of the state was marked as “travel not advised” on 511.gov, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s road conditions website.

Home to processors along with one of the highest concentrations of dairy farms in the state, keeping the dairy industry moving through inclement weather is a top concern for Clark County Highway Commissioner Brian Duell.

“The National Weather Service was updating us constantly and holding webinars prior to the storm,” Duell said. “They did a wonderful job telling us the different scenarios of what we were expecting.”

Duell said the county experienced the heaviest snowfall between highways 10 and 29, the area where most of the dairy farms and processors are.

“Our local farmers and drivers knew what was going on and were prepared,” Duell said. “The issue we had was that the dairy manufacturers get a lot of their milk from outside the area, where the storm wasn’t as bad as what was going on here. Those drivers experienced trouble as they drove into the storm area.”

Clark County’s snow removal plan is set up with routes that take approximately three hours to complete.

“They typically run the main line, plowing, and then they have to go back and wing the material off the shoulders,” Duell said. “During a snow event, that’s about six hours. With this storm, snow was falling at the rate of 3 inches an hour or more. By the time they ran the route the first time, you were already losing the battle because there was already 9 inches of snow back on the road. That’s not something the general public can navigate.”

Wood County Highway Commissioner Roland Hawk said his department fell behind almost before they started.

“We started off with a charter bus full of kids going the wrong way on Highway 10 at roughly 5:30 a.m.,” Hawk said. “Then, they tried to cross over at one of the county road crossings and got stuck in the median, so it had to be towed and then needed an escort from our plow trucks to get it to Marshfield. That break in our service, not having our trucks plowing, led to three semi-trucks that jackknifed in the eastbound lane and one in the westbound lane. That shut everything down on Highway 10.”

Those attempting to travel were not the only ones struggling through the snow. Hawk said the men on his crew said they had never experienced anything like the conditions that raged through central Wisconsin.

“It was a very historic storm from an overall perspective,” Hawk said. “None of us can recall a snow event that had snow falling as fast and accumulating as quickly as this did. … We got close to 30 inches in a 24-hour period.”

The snow even mired down the snowplows in many instances.

“We had eight or nine trucks that became stuck at some point during the day,” Hawk said. “They either needed a wrecker or assistance from our largest equipment to get out.”

As the storm raged and crews struggled to clear main highways, dairy farmers across the region recognized the need and rose to action.

Keith Kreager and his family milk 75 cows near Marathon.

“Our township was having a terrible time trying to fight the storm, getting stuck,” Kreager said. “We put in a bigger tank a few years ago, in case of a bad snowstorm like this, so we had told our hauler we didn’t need to be picked up until Monday night. We had neighbors that needed to get home, so I helped them out. Another neighbor drives a plow truck for the county, and he said he needed to be back to work in a few hours, but he had to get some sleep. I told him not to worry. I’d be right there to help him.”

Kreager said he lost count of the number of hours he logged plowing snow in a 2-mile radius of his family’s farm, but it was a service he was happy to provide.

“This storm wasn’t something many people could deal with on their own,” Kreager said.

County officials agreed that without the help of farmers across the region, the task at hand could have become insurmountable.

“I can’t say enough about our local farmers,” Duell said. “They did an amazing job. They have enough equipment, and they just figured out how to get the milk trucks to the farm. They might have had to plow their way to a state highway or whatever, but they did what they had to do and made it work. They helped us — and the townships — tremendously.”

Marinette County Highway Commissioner Eric Burmeister agreed that the support provided by farmers was invaluable.

“In many of our areas, farmers were able to break open paths for emergency vehicles so we could get our loaders and graders through,” Burmeister said. “A lot of the towns don’t have the ability to clear roads like we do with the county. The farmers helped a lot on the town roads.”

Duell said it is worth pursuing the option to work with the farmers of his county to establish response plans to future high-magnitude storms.

“Our farmers are a potential resource tool we need to consider,” Duell said. “We need to figure out the logistics to make it happen, in terms of how we make that phone call and what it looks like in terms of things like liability and compensation.”

Like the farmers who rely on the roads, highway crews deal with long hours and the fatigue that accompanies them. Burmeister expressed gratitude and pride in the effort the crew put forth.

“We have 28 snowplow drivers, and we split them into two 16-hour shifts of 14,” Burmeister said. “We were able to give each shift an 8-hour recovery period. The majority of my crew slept at the highway shops. We were able to set up cots and sleeping quarters.”

Despite the long days, both for farmers and plow truck drivers, pulling together as a community to overcome adversity is what makes Wisconsin special, Burmeister said.

“That is what happens in Wisconsin when we have an event like this,” Burmeister said. “People in the community put aside any differences they might have, and they figure out how to solve a problem as best they can. When everyone pulls together, it doesn’t always seem so bad.”