Breakfast on the Farm

Breakfast is ready! 6/13/2026 dwm

The 47th Dane County Dairy Breakfast was hosted on a family farm established in the 1950s last Saturday and they couldn't have had a better day.

Those of us driving to the farm parked in an alfalfa field a country mile from where the food was, but thanks to a number of tractor-pulled wagons it wasn't a long wait.

The hospitality tent had four lanes where you could pick up breakfast; about 30% of the tables were occupied at 7:15 but it wouldn't be long before it would be full.

The Breakfast. 6/13/2026 dwm

I picked a place in the sun and sat down to eat a hearty breakfast of pancakes, scrambled eggs, two Jones sausage links, Odyssey's blueberry yogurt, packages of Mozzarella and Fontina cheese, and a carton of chocolate milk.

Fortified, I took a walk around the Swaindale Genetics farm. It's owned by Gary Swain and Dana Kelly with help from their three children and Gary's older brother, Scott. Gary's parents help with fieldwork.

Later on, I met Scott Swain, who was wearing one of the green Breakfast on the Farm t-shirts, asking a quick question while he patrolled the grounds filling up with hundreds of guests.

A Holstein calf. 6/13/2026 dwm

The first barn was where a half-dozen calves were getting a lot of attention from guests of all ages.

As I followed my ears to where the live music was being by the Gary Beal Band, I stopped at the last food station to complete the meal, with a generous scoop of Ultimate Oreo ice cream from the Chocolate Shoppe Company. That's a good deal for $10!

There was more to see, I appreciated a restored box truck showing how it looked when milk was transported from the farm to the dairy in individual milk cans (photos below).

Ultimate Oreo ice cream. 6/13/2026 dwm

There were several generations of vintage farm tractors on display, while there were four or five beautiful old farm tractors ferrying wagons back and forth from the field filled with hungry dairy fans.

That field was growing alfalfa that hadn't yet been cut (I suspect the rain earlier in the week was the reason). Volunteers used flags to line us up in long lines in the field then join a line of fans ready to board.

Dane County is the eighth largest in the state in terms of land, the other seven are up north, and I've not explored all the areas of it yet. On my way home, I took a country road that was new to me and it was beautiful, which is another good reason to eat breakfast on a farm whenever possible.