Dave Duitscher may not have grown up in the dairy business, but it’s clearly a part of his family’s DNA.
The family has owned and operated Dutchland Dairy since 1998. The Duitschers are one of seven farm families who will be recognized as recipients of the 2024 Way We Live Award at the Iowa State Fair. Nominations included descriptions of how living on the farm and choosing farming as an occupation has shaped the family’s life.
Duitscher and his wife Nancy farm in northern Iowa with his parents, Dean and Melvene Duitscher, and Dave’s brother Dan, along with their families.
He says the family had about everything else on their farm other than dairy cows while he was growing up.
After attending veterinary school at Iowa State University, Duitscher practiced elsewhere for a couple years and started thinking about moving home. He worked with his parents in building the dairy, starting with 300 cows in 1998. His brother Dan joined the operation two years later.
Since the beginning, genetics have played a key role in the dairy’s development. Dutchland Dairy has focused on a unique cross-breeding program with exceptional reproduction and cow health.
The Duitscher family milks 2,000 cows and farms about 2,000 acres of corn, alfalfa and soybeans. The cows are cross-bred, consisting of Holsteins, Jerseys and Brown Swiss genetics.
“We have expanded over time because we’ve had the help of both our family and our employees,” he says. “We have extremely low turnover when it comes to our staff.”
In addition to their farm chores, the family opens up their operation to the community when asked. The Duitschers give multiple tours each year and explain dairy farming and agriculture to school groups, families, 4-H clubs, church groups and senior citizen groups.
Dutchland Dairy is the main provider of milk to the Caves of Faribault, a Prairie Farms Cooperative milk plant, which makes AmaBlu and St. Pete’s Select blue cheese.
“About half of our milk goes to Caves. They mostly use our milk to make their products,” Duitscher says, adding the rest of their milk is sold to other plants in the Midwest.
He says operating a dairy is hard work for everyone, but it’s something he enjoys.
“I really like working around animals and I especially like working with the cows,” he says. “I also enjoy working with good people every day. It’s been a good place to raise a family.”
