“Hey, I saw your new
blog, exciting! But I don’t get it. It’s in DUTCH!” Just last week it was posted
at melkvee.nl. Per special request: in English.
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| Photo by Matt Addington, copyrights MDA |
From Dutch Clay to windy prairies
About four thousand miles away from the flat motherland, I’m
writing my first scribble for my blog about our dairy farm. An introduction.
In the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in the Frisian county of
Ooststellingwerf to be more precise, I was born and raised in a family with two
siblings, five sheep and a beautiful garden. My neighbors and best friends’
families all farmed; dairy cows, Frisian horses, poultry. Marrying a farmer?
Never! Right before graduating from college with a teaching degree, I met
Wilfried: a true Holstein-lover. Now we’re married 18 years, have three
teenagers at home and 2,000 black & white ladies in the barns.
Wilfried and his parents moved from the Eastern part of the
Netherlands to the North to relocate the family farm. It was a 90 minute drive,
and a revolution. The dialect was different, it was more rural, and their new
home in Rasquert, North-Groningen was only a few miles from the coast. My
parents in law who had always milked cows, moved to town, making room for our
family to live at the farm. We invested in three milk-robots, increased the
herd to 170 head of cows. My little world included our family, the farm and
education. Leaving to a different country was not a topic of discussion; life
was good.
Challenge
August 2006: we exchanged the flat, windy part of the
Netherland, for the just-as-windy prairies of low populated South Dakota. The
country of green grass, seed potatoes, fields of wheat, brussels sprouts,
carrots, onions, cabbage, some silage corn, was traded for a new world of corn,
beans, alfalfa and cows in pastures, in slightly rolling hills. The many curvy
asphalt roads were substituted by straight gravel roads. Many call this country
flat. To us, it is hilly.
The state of South Dakota has actively recruited dairy
producers to move to this vast country. Good education, affordable land, lots
of space, and it’s so quiet! “South Dakota, there’s nothing there!”, is what
people told us. Nevertheless, we embraced it. Agriculture is what it’s all
about, and the communities support this. We accepted the challenge to milk cows
in this land of opportunities.
More efficient
Hilltop Dairy near Elkton was already a few years in
existence when it was offered up for sale. 1,400 cows, barely any land, calves
were raised by others. We liked the location, having quality education
available for the children, Brookings and SD State University nearby for our social life. How
could we make our new love more efficient? The calves were raised by ourselves
immediately, more land was added, the barns were expanded. How could we fully
utilize our 40-stands rotary parlor? We milk three times daily, day and night.
There is a motivated crew of 25 employees, of which 23 are fluent in Spanish.
American cows are being milked by immigrants from Mexico and Central America. At
Hilltop too. Plus: we offer internships to students from all around the world.
Leadership program
Wilfried and I manage our family farm together. He does
general management, I do financial administration and HR. Our children mainly
work at the farm during summer. Besides my tasks at the dairy, I also work
part-time as program director for South Dakota Agricultural and Rural
Leadership (SDARL). SDARL offers a leadership course for agricultural professionals,
of which I am a graduate myself. Education again. It involves some traveling.
As a dairy producer I am involved with multiple boards and advisory groups, and
occasionally some public speaking on different topics such as “Aliens in Ag”.
Difficult Years
After eight years of good, bad and ugly times, we still don’t
regret our move to the US. After our progressive start, we were challenged by
high feed prices and low milk prices. A nearly impossible economic situation
for the American dairy farmer. We had not counted on that. Thanks to confident,
supportive neighbors and friends we survived the crisis. A step back, taking a
deep breath and evaluating. Eight years after the move we have learned a lot. The
biggest difference operating the farm is managing people instead of cows.
Everything is different, however. Our new world is surprising, shocking, puzzling
sometimes. I could write a book about it. Instead, now a blog. I am looking
forward to your comments, and hope to get to know you – the reader- as well.
Olga
Facebook: Hilltop Dairy Elkton
Twitter: @webmilkmaid
