In the winter of 2007, Hickory Hill Dairy was built on a greenfield site in Juda in far southern Wisconsin by Hickory and Erin Daniels. The couple moved 149 cows to a new facility on April 1, 2008.
They started with a 130-stall, three-row, sand-bedded freestall barn and a 12-stall swing parlor. Over the years, the farm added on to the freestall barn twice, expanded the parlor to a swing 14, built a feed storage area, added rented cropland and purchased some bordering farmland. Hickory Hill employs two full-time and seven part-time employees to care for 350 milk cows and 330 heifers and farm 570 acres.
DBA: What sustainable practices are you using on the farm and what benefits have you seen?
Hickory Daniels: We use 100 percent no-till farming practices on all of our cropland. We have also grown cover crops for eight years now. The organic matter content of the home farm has gone up over 2 percentage points and greatly increased water holding capacity, erosion has been drastically reduced and crop yields have increased. We also use an intensive rotation that includes BMR corn silage, cereal rye, soybeans, winter wheat, annual rye grass, grain corn and various small grain cover crop mixes.
DBA: How do you engage with the non-farming public about dairy farming?
Daniels: We try to engage mostly through social media since that is where a lot of interest comes from. My wife oversees our farm Facebook page, which is helpful because she doesn’t come from a farm background and can give good insight to the non-farming public based on what she has learned. You can find various pictures and videos of what is happening around the farm along with important customer information about agriculture that is commonly misunderstood. We have also hosted tours in the past for both farmers and non-farmers. It is important to us to be open, honest and always willing to share.
DBA: What advice would you offer to young farmers?
Daniels: Never take no for an answer. Manage the little details, and the big picture will fall into place. And know your numbers! Learn from other peoples' successes and failures and build good relationships with fellow producers, consultants and previous bosses because they make excellent resources for years to come.
DBA: What does the future hold for Hickory Hill Dairy?
Daniels: We would like to continue to grow our herd to about 450 cows, add long-term manure storage, build a dedicated heifer facility and grow the cropping side of our operation.
DBA: What do you see as major challenges and opportunities facing the dairy community?
Daniels: Environmental regulations are going to continue to be a challenge and an opportunity. Being on the forefront of these issues will be an opportunity to show the non-farming public that we are also passionate about protecting the environment and we are serious about preserving it for everyone's future.
DBA: What technologies have you incorporated on your farm that have benefited your business?
Daniels: Automation. We added automatic takeoffs to the parlor in 2012 and that immediately reduced our labor cost in the parlor by 20 percent while also being more consistent for the animals. In the future, I think things like automatic feed pushers, automated parlors, automatic sort gates and automated calf feeders are going to be a very normal and necessary part of most operations. My grandpa went from four feet pulling a plow to four-wheel drive tractors pulling a plow and now we do not even use plows. I think our kids will see things in their lifetime that we have not even imagined yet. It’s important for us to keep perspective with technology as the perception from those in the non-farming public is that technology is “bad” and doesn’t make farming what it used to be.
DBA: If you were talking to people who have no connection to agriculture, what would you want to tell them about your farm or the dairy community?
Daniels: There is no such thing as a dumb question — ask a farmer directly and you will find we share a lot of the same concerns and have a lot of common ground. We are always happy to engage in a conversation around how food is made, and most farmers would love to host you for a tour.
DBA: You have been a member of DBA since 2007. What benefit do you find most helpful?
Daniels: I appreciate that DBA keeps a close eye on what the politicians are doing in Madison and informs us so we can speak up and make sure our voices are heard on issues before it’s too late.
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