Chapter 27 - Day at the Dairy Expo

It's October - time for the combine to start harvesting the crops.

Scotty will start with the driest fields and work his way into the rest of the acres as the fall dry-down continues.

A few times we've had to wait until several inches of snow was laying between the rows of corn, but right now it looks like the weather and conditions will cooperate with our plans this season.

Corn prices are lower than they have been in several years which hurts our friends who sold their cows long ago to concentrate on cash crops.

Right now, dairy is the place to be in agriculture.  Butter sales are maybe as high as they ever have been - going back before the days of margarine.

When it rained a couple of days ago, Scotty and I drove down to Madison to check out the World Dairy Expo at the Alliant Energy Center.

With high milk prices the vendors in the exhibit hall seemed  more hopeful than ever as they shared the latest technology and techniques farmers like us could use to really "make it" next year.  Aisle after aisle, it's one booth after another with special give-aways and free offers to grab the attention of ever-hopeful farmers.

We did find the large exhibit for the cow do-it-yourself milking operation that we read about in the Farm Times magazine last spring.  After talking to the representatives for a while and watching the online video, we agreed to have their biologist and lead for the design team come out to see if their operation might work for us.

The exhibits are amazing.  There are prize-winning bulls and cows on display with their resumes standing on giant easels near their stalls.

Some of the animals are worth $50,000 or more.

For the right price, farmers can purchase some of the prize-winning DNA to make their own herd a better one.

The whole thing seems a bit surreal to me.  I remember having to rent a bull from a breeding operation.  Have him spend a week with some of the potential mothers in the herd and hope for the best.  Now you can design your own offspring on a computer with a detailed genetic chart.

The day in the Capital City was capped off with a nice dinner at the Great Dane.  Scotty and I usually don't get most of the day off, so it was nice to have some time to talk about the future of the farm; it's five generations of family history; and consider the risks of taking action or standing still.

It was a lot to talk about.  Before we pull the trigger, we agreed the whole family needs to be in on the conference - Rich, my brother, the college kids, and spouses - it's more than a business for us it's our lives.

Catch up on the whole story here.