There is an interesting downward trend with dairy farms in America’s Dairyland that has been going on for years.
That is something farmers like Felicia Erickson and her husband, 5th generation farmer Dave Messerschmidt, are keeping an eye on.
The cows on her farm are having breakfast in the vast field surrounding the Messerschmidt Dairy Farm in Eau Claire County Saturday.
“We milk 55 Holstein cows. And, we have young stock on the farm as well,” said Erickson.
Community members coming by the busload to the farm as well. This is the fourth Breakfast on the Farm event held there, with Erickson estimating around 2,000 people show up for each year.
“It was an outstanding breakfast,” said Roy Broseth. He too was a dairy farmer back in his day. A time that looked vastly different for the industry.
“My son just graduated from Fall Creek High School and he was just one of two dairy farm kids in the whole school district. When my husband graduated from Fall Creek High School, there was 17 in his class alone,” said Erickson. “It’s pretty scary when you think about the fact there’s so few grade A dairy farms left in Eau Claire County.”
“The small dairy farm today is a struggle. They have to be very efficient to make a profit,” said Broseth. “A small farm has to have a full line of machinery, and that’s expensive.”
The industry now requiring more hard work and as always, some sacrifice.
“It’s not just a job, it’s your whole life,” said Erickson. “They just didn’t take time off, and I think that was a little detrimental for the next generation to see that.”
Despite the struggles, Ryan Sterry with UW-Extension also notices a hopeful outlook for dairy farms. He monitors trends for Eau Claire, Chippewa and Dunn Counties.
“Between the three counties, there’s 257 grade A permitted dairy farms. That’s down from about 500 about a decade ago,” said Sterry. “Despite there’s less farms, there’s actually more milk produced today in the Chippewa Valley than there was 10 years ago.”
Sterry believes Wisconsin, America’s Dairyland, will continue to compete with states like California. He said production in the Badger State is catching up with that of California in recent times.
“In our hearts it will always be America’s Dairyland,” said Sterry.
“I think we will always be America’s Dairyland,” said Erickson.
For now, Erickson and Messerschmidt will continue and see if the industry will continue to be passed on to future generations.
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