“The ag economy is in a tough spot, so hopefully
we’ll see some price recovery.”
In La Crosse, 60 miles southeast of the Gar-Lin
Dairy, Dona Goede, Brad Sirianni and Aimee
Schomburg, farm business management
instructors at Western Technical College, sat
around a table in a conference room looking
over years’ worth of milk production numbers.
Each has experience with the fluctuation of the
ag and dairy market. Sirianni farms 170 acres
of land in Trempealeau County to supply feed
to dairy farmers; Schomburg milks 130 cows
and farms roughly 220 acres to feed her herd;
Goede’s in-laws are getting ready to expand
their organic farm into the organic dairy industry
as a way to use leftover hay supplies.
Goede said her in-laws crunched the numbers
and decided to invest in the kind of cattle that
will produce milk high in butterfat, proteins
or components that lend themselves well to
cheese production.
“You need to supply the market with what it
wants, and we’re in Wisconsin so it’s cheese. By
jumping in on organic and the components with
high butterfat, every time we do the cash flows,
it works for that operation,” Goede said. “The
farms that we have struggling right now from
what I see are the ones that aren’t willing to give
the market what they want.”
Schomburg nodded in agreement, as her
newborn daughter cooed in the background.
“As long as you’re going to be in the industry, you
have to be willing to be flexible,” Schomburg said.
She and her husband purchased their farm just last
year from family members, but she questioned
whether that was the right decision for her family.