With the help of a Buffalo County News article by Beth Kraft, I explore in more detail how three generations of one family in Alma, Buffalo County, grew their dairy business, DS Farms, over the past 70-plus years. In turn, I educate myself on components the family added to their dairy farm to stay ahead of the dairy market power curve.
The opening photo on the left is a Google Earth photo of the buildings on DS Farms located on CH E, Alma. The image on the right comes from Buffalo County Online Land Records. It reflects the family’s building-block approach to stay competitive in a tough dairy market.
This article is as much about my education as it might be yours.
Ms. Kraft stepped her reader through how the farm evolved starting in the early 1950s with “20 milk cows, 10 sows, and 500 laying chickens.” By 2023 the farm grew to 600 cows and 1,600 acres, also growing corn, alfalfa, soybeans, and winter wheat.
Melvin J. and Dorothy Danzinger bought the farm in 1951 through an auction, seventy-two years ago. Kraft said they started with 20 milk cows in 1951. My focus will be on the dairy-end of their business.
“In 1920, the world began changing faster than ever before … We were starting to use machines for heavy lifting, moving dirt, and building skyscrapers. Research was starting to speed up as well … New information was the sign of the times.
“But, down on the farm things moved more slowly … They lacked the proper tools to change things quickly … Now, for those of you that were not here in 1950, a cow was a cow back then … There were very few milk-recording programs, little data about the cows or bulls … Milk weights from cows and bull daughters were only recorded for a day or maybe a week. But each dairyman knew his cows inside and out. He learned to think like a cow and understand why she limped if it was not because of any obvious injury.”
My image of the Danzinger Farm in the early 1950s is this: The cows were in the pasture, and they fetched them to where they could milk them. They sat on a milking stool to milk them, squirting the raw milk into a pale.
In her book “The Farm on Badger Creek,” Peggy Prilman Marxen wrote that the milking stool was among the most helpful tools around. She said,
“Our lives were entwined with the rhythm of the herd, with milking on a daily basis at five o’clock in the morning and six o’clock in the evening. Dad was present for both, and sometimes our family of four required all hands on deck, especially in the evening, for the one or two hours of milking and related chores.”
The Danzingers probably did much the same. Melvin and Dorothy had three sons. Perhaps one or more of them would milk the cows in the morning before school and then again after school. They most surely helped with the many chores.
There’s a good chance the Danzingers had a 10-gallon milk can sitting close by the milking stool They would pour the milk from each bucket into the 10-gallon container, usually through a filter to remove the hay, grass, and other stuff that might get into their pales.
They would also find a way to cool the milk to prevent bacteria from proliferating. For example, Melvin might put the milk in the cellar if he had one, lower it into a well, or place the 10-gallon can into cold water.
For many years, the 10-gallon containers were loaded on a truck like this or on the bed of a horse-drawn carriage. This Library of Congress photo shows workers loading a truck full of milk cans. the milk was then taken to a nearby processing facility to be pasteurized.
Friends have told me farmers were pretty strong back in the day. Many could carry two filled 10-gallon cans, one with each arm, and upload them in one “swell-foop!” Each can would weigh 90 lbs.
Kraft said the Danzingers added a “milk house with a 300-gallon bulk tank” in 1955. If my initial image is right, this was a huge step forward from the milking stool. Cows could now be put in the milk house, and the farmer could quickly move from one cow to another.
What is a Milk house? The Wisconsin Historical Society shows this concrete block milk house in 1924 in Orfordville, Rock County, Wisconsin. They were simple structures built from wood or blocks. Note the lady is holding a bucket and there are 10-gallon milk cans lined up to the left of the photo.
Mark Bushnell, writing “Then Again: Bulk milk tanks altered the family farm way of Life” about dairy farming in Vermont, commented that “Tipping points in history aren’t always sudden, dramatic events we might imagine … Sometimes the tipping point can be something seemingly mundane.”
He cites the bulk tank as “a simple new technology that ended up transforming the state’s rural economy and landscape.”
This is an example of an older 300-gallon bulk milk tank. A hose could be connected from this tank to a milk truck for dispatch to the processing facility. As you’ll see, it would not take long to figure out how to get the milk directly from the cow to the tank.
Adding a 300—gallon bulk milk tank in 1955, four years after they started, must have been a great step forward. That point is underscored by the Wisconsin Dairy Taskforce 2.0 Final Report of June 21, 2019,
“The dairy industry has periodically gone through substantial change. In the 1950s, the introduction of the bulk tank created a seismic shift in technology. The new efficiency of collecting, cooling, and shipping milk in bulk, rather than 40-quart cans, forced a rapid adoption. However, the technology required a substantial investment that many
small farms could not make at the time. Maintaining can milk shipments and producing Grade B milk was a viable option for several years, but ultimately, the technology was a barrier for many farms.”
“Beginning in 1952, milk handlers from Massachusetts and Vermont began pushing farmers to install stainless steel bulk tanks. The new tanks made it easier for the handlers to collect milk, thereby cutting their costs. The cost of the shiny new tanks, however, was borne by farmers. Or in thousands of instances, not borne by farmers who instead went out of business, having decided the investment was too expensive.
“The biggest issue, from the farmers’ perspective, was that bulk tanks were expensive pieces of equipment. Installing a tank was a major investment, particularly for small farms.”
Expensive, yes, but the Danzingers got the bulk tank anyway. That was smart. You will see this theme repeat itself over and over as we proceed.
“Postwar transportation technologies and political changes radically altered the geography of dairy farming.”
New transportation systems brought rural farmers closer to urban centers, and the trend was directed toward mass milk production.
The Danzingers stopped raising hogs and chickens in 1957. They remodeled their barn that year, ramping up to 46 stalls, a bull pen, a calving pen, and two calf pens.
I’ll briefly address each of these “upgrades.” First, the stanchion. Kraft wrote that a UW-Extension specialist designed comfort stalls for the Danzingers. Comfort stalls? What?
“Farm management specialists in the 1950s promoted plans to redesign two parts of the dairy farm that had remained unchanged since the turn of the century: the stanchion and the pasture … One change promoted in the 1950s was to shift from stanchion barns to loose housing.”
This is a photo from North Carolina State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences showing a farmer milking a cow with the cow’s head in a stanchion back in 1943. The idea of a stanchion was to hold the cow’s head in place. Early stanchions tethered the cow’s neck to its stall.
“Stanchions and old tiestall facilities pose significant welfare concerns, largely related to their similarity to tethering of other farm animals such as swine. Many older barns provide uncomfortable stalls that are too small for mature Holstein cows.”
Such facilities can damage the cow. Their shoulders and winged scapula are especially vulnerable. The old designs impeded the cow from grooming herself, and failed to allow the cow to rest.
The UW-Extension specialist working with the Danzingers designed comfort stalls for their farm. I don’t know what the specific design was, but this is a photo The UW Dairyland Initiative presents of a comfort stall. This Initiative also presents details about how to set up this kind of stall. The initiative said cows should be able to get outside: use of the old time stanchion is no good; deep loose bedding is preferred.
Kraft, as noted previously, said the Danzingers in 1957 also added a bullpen, a calving pen, and two calf pens. I’ll briefly address the bullpen. No, not a baseball bullpen!
That said, I was surprised to learn there is a relationship between a dairy farm bull pen and a baseball bullpen. Wikipedia says,
“in the late 19th century latecomers to ball games were cordoned off into standing-room areas in foul territory. Because the fans were herded like cattle, this area became known as the ‘bullpen’, a designation which was retained when those areas became the spot where relief pitchers would warm up.”
In the cattle industry, the bull is “the man of the house.” Several experts have urged farmers not to have bulls on their farm. Hoard’s Dairyman says,
“The best way to not get injured by a bull is to not have one on the farm.”
It says further,
“Bulls show many forms of aggression … Lowering their head, arching their back, and pawning the ground are all ways to try to look as large as possible. When a bull begins to act aggressively, it is best to back up slowly and find your way to the nearest exit.”
That said, many dairy farmers like having a dairy bull on the scene in order to breed. If the farmer decides to go that way, then there are some ideas that have merit, and it appears the Danzingers took them aboard.
Back in 1936, C.S. Rhode and W.A. Foster wrote an article entitled “Managing the Dairy Bull.”published in 1936, that says “The dairy bull should have a shed of his own” with plenty of space to exercise.
This diagram shows their concept. The authors recommended that the exercise yard should be placed where the cows pass by and the bull can see them. It’s best to place the yard adjacent to a small pasture field. The yard does not have to be wide, but it should be long. The fence should be strong. I have seen one diagram that shows a ladder up against the wall or fence so the farmer can make a quick getaway if the bull goes wild!
Their article presents multiple sketches. This one gives you an idea of the package!
Having an offspring, as most mothers know, can be very stressful. That holds true for the cow. Sandy Stuttgren, writing “The Ideal Calving Pen” for UW Extension Taylor County, tells us,
“For optimal newborn health, calves must be delivered into the cleanest, driest area possible, maintaining minimal pathogen exposure to the calf. This safe environment is provided when the calving
animal is isolated from other cattle.”
The idea is to make the calving cow as comfortable as possible, before and after calving, as well as for the newborn.
Beth Kraft has me a bit stumped on the Danzingers adding “two calf pens.” From what I’ve learned, indoor calf pens are often modular, which means the farmer can assemble many, often in two rows for example.
Seneca Dairy Systems displays a single pen as shown here. It can be assembled individually as a stand-alone pen or connected modularly with two adjacent pens sharing a common wall.
The next big step taken on the Danzinger farm was to buy the Neighboring Kaste Farm, done in 1964. I assume this was the farm of Herman Kaste. Genealogy Trails says Mr. Kaste was “one of the most successful farmers in Gilmanton township, Buffalo County.” It also says, “His farm was almost 300 acres with “125 acres under plow.” The Kaste farm had two sections, one in Gilmanton Township, the other in Modena, I’m not sure if the Danzingers bought one or both. Kraft said The farm increased its population to 64 cows.
The farm is getting bigger, and they now have more cattle. Kraft noted, “With the addition of more cows and land to the farm, equipment had to advance. So the Danzingers got a 600-gallon bulk tank. Kraft said,
“It was the first DeLaval pipeline sold in Wisconsin with an automatic wash.”
I do not know exactly what model of the DeLaval Pipeline the Danzingers bought. Gustaf de Laval was a Swedish engineer, (1845-1913) best known for developing early milking machines and the first centrifugal milk-cream separator.
The days of sitting on the milking stool to milk one cow at a time are long gone from the Danzinger farm. Teat cups are attached to the cow’s teats. There is a line of suction that acts like a vacuum cleaner, and a pulsator that gently compresses and releases the inside of each claw to cause a pumping effect.
The DeLaval pipeline is usually a stainless steel pipeline that carries the milk from the cow to the bulk tank. The automatic washer is a unit that cleans that pipeline robotically, important to keep bacteria and other stuff out of the system for milking the next cow.
I did not know about DeLaval systems. Today the company makes a complete robotic system for milking cows. YouTube has an eight minute video on-line that demonstrates the advanced system, labeled the DeLaval VMS Voluntary Milking System. This is what it looks like. Basically you walk the cow into the station and the robotics do the rest! I don’t think the Danzingers got this model.
Also in 1964, the Danzingers bought a “John Deere 4020 tractor-the first power shift model 4020 sold.” The power shift was an added option, and they took it. You could get it diesel or LPG, eight forward speeds, and two reverse speeds standard. Over 184,000 were built.
In the late 1960s, they constructed a pole shed, machinery storage, and new silos. This is a current photo of part of the Danzinger Farm of today from Google Earth. You can see three silos, one without a top. You can also see multiple buildings, including pole sheds.
A pole shed or pole barn is a type of post-frame construction that uses metal, steel, or wood poles and cross beams to build sturdy structures. This is an example of a farm pole shed I found on a website in New Zealand. These have replaced the classic red Wisconsin barn we have seen so often, a sad loss for those of us who love the old red barn.
In the late 1960s, sons Melvin M., David, and Tom attended UW-River Falls. This school is known for its agricultural-related programs. David earned a Masters in Agricultural Education, and Melvin earned a Bachelors in Agronomy from that school. Each of them worked the farm for 30 years. David was the manager and Melvin was in charge of the crop program. So they now have college-educated dairy farmers!
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I need to pause for a moment. Incredibly, Melvin and David retired from the farm over time and started a vineyard.
Danzinger Vineyards is located high on a bluff near Alma and not far from the Danzinger farm.
David (Left) is the general manager, Melvin (right) is the vineyard manager.
They planted their first vines in 2003. and started selling their own wine around 2009-2010.
The Dairy Star of 2011 recaps this Danzinger wine expedition.
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Sadly, in late 1974 Melvin J., who started Danzinger Farms, died in a tractor accident. The two brothers formed a formal partnership after they lost their father, and named it Danzinger and Sons, known as DS Farms.
In 1975, the two brothers then expanded their stall barn to 100 stalls, increased their herd to 100 cows, and added a 1,500 gallon bulk tank.
I assume their 100 stall barn was a free stall barn, which is shown here courtesy of 3D Warehouse. A free stall barn houses dairy cattle for extended periods and includes a bedding area for the cattle to rest. That is in keeping with what their father did years before with his smaller herd and the UW comfort stall design.
In 1977, they built a “heifer/steer barn with stalled floors” on the farm where Melvin lived. This is fascinating. The Danzingers have long paid close attention to comfort for their cattle. The sons now moved to have stalled floors in a new barn. This emanates from the pressures of the dairy business that, over time, forced many to confine their cattle in stanchions. In the case of the Danzingers, they started with comfort stalls, then a larger free-stall barn, and now stalled floors.
Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine has an interesting article, “Considerations of flooring” for cattle. The authors address the challenges of even free stalls where the staging and resting surface is concrete. The Cornell paper says that Europeans paid close attention to how concrete floors impacted the feet and legs of the cattle. The article says cows will stand for about 10 hours per day and lie down for close to 14 hours per day. Their constant use of concrete floors has contributed to their becoming lame. The Cornell paper says,
“Specific to flooring surfaces, Bee et al. (1986) reported that poor concrete surfaces and low free stall utilization caused a high incidence of sole ulcer and white line disease in herds fed low levels of concentrates. Dumelow and Albutt (1988) stated that leg joints, ligaments and tendons are the main tissues damaged when a cow slips and falls onto or against hard surfaces as a result of slippery floors …There is a fine line between a concrete floor surface that is too rough and causes injury due to abrasion and one that is too smooth and causes injury because of inadequate footing. Experience has shown that the finish on a floor is often the biggest mistake made during barn construction.”
The idea that has resulted is to install grooved floors. The problem then is to figure out how to space the grooves. I commend the article to you. There are many options. I do not know which one the Danzinger brothers chose.
There is a consensus that dairy cattle need very good flooring. Cornell says, “it must be grooved or patterned to provide confident footing.” I took this example photo from the Freden Company located in Europe. While searching around for examples of good flooring for dairy cattle, I found companies advocating slatted floors, textured finishes on concrete, rubber matting, and filter fabric with dense grade aggregate on top.
Beth Kraft reported that the brothers were the first to have a TMR mixer in Buffalo County. They put it in the new barn. So, what is a TMR Mixer? A TMR Mixer is “a mixer wagon, or diet feeder … used for accurately weighing, mixing and distributing total mixed ration (TMR) for ruminant (in this case cattle) animals, in particular cattle and most commonly, dairy cattle.”
The TMR Mixer can be inside or outside the barn as shown here.
By now I hope you better appreciate the “tender loving care” the Danzingers gave to their dairy cattle. We should appreciate their investment when we drink a glass of milk or eat some cheese!
Beth Kraft moved on to report, “As technology continued to advance, DS Farms conducted an expansion in 1979.”
Kraft described the expansion this way,
“A Trigon three-sided 12-stall Germania parlor with automatic takeoffs, a 140 free stall addition, an earthen manure lagoon, 24x90 silo, a 20x40 harvester for high-moisture corn, and a TMR mixer with second bunk feeder were all added at the time.”
Now there’s a mouthful!
Let’s break that sentence down. I’ll start with the Germania parlor. As far as I can tell, “Germania” is a brand name, referred to by one company as “the spirit and tradition of Germania.” I think it is allied with DeLaval, the Swedish company I mentioned earlier.
The milking parlor is the place where the cow is milked. Susan Allen, writing for Dairy Discovery Zone, says there are four modern milking parlor designs:
Parallel: The cows stand parallel to each other, in their stalls. The milker stands behind the cow to milk her.
Tandem: The cows stand nose-to-tail inside individual stalls. This allows the milker to milk the cow from the side.
Herringbone: The cows stand at 45-degree angles. This allows the milker different access points than the previous two options and allows the use of different kinds of equipment.
Rotary: The milking stalls are arranged in a large circle on a platform that rotates slowly. The cows enter one by one. The milker attaches the teat cups from the rear. when done the cups drop off automatically and the cow leaves the platform making room for the next one to step in.
The Herringbone milk parlor is the most popular.
I’ll now take you to what I have found about a ”Trigon three-sided 12-stall Germania parlor with automatic takeoffs.” The Illinois-Iowa Dairy Guide has a schematic of this, shown here. It uses herringbone stalls. The Guide says,
“The first trigon was built in 1977 by Walter Bartelheimer of Snohomish, Washington. This 12-stall parlor was designed by Gene Kohl, a territory manager for Clay Equipment Company of Cedar Falls, Iowa … The trigon was designed for the medium-sized dairy (200-500 cows) to incorporate the advantages of the popular 4-sided polygon. Increased performance on a per-stall basis over double-row herringbone parlors is possible because of the decreased effort of slow-moving cows on total parlor performance. This is due to three shorter rows of herringbone stalls compared to two longer pines allowing more frequent turnouts. With the trigon a slow milking cow does not delay the milking of as many cows.”
So the first trigon was designed in 1977 and the Danzingers put one in two laters, in 1979! The Farm Show Magazine article, “The Trigon Milking Parlor” by Dennis V. Armstrong, University of Arizona, says,
“Dairymen like the New ‘Trigon’ parlor.” He quotes one dairyman saying,
“It’s the only way to milk … I like the idea of moving four cows at a time instead of eight. It ties up fewer cows. Another thing I like is that you can milk the same number of cows in 12 stalls as you can in a double-8 or 10. The parlor also gives you a better feeling for your cows. Milking is more comfortable.”
The “automatic takeoffs” cause the teat cups to release automatically when the milking is done for each cow. An operator manually attaches the teat cup manually. In watching YouTube videos of the process, you can see the operator cleaning the teats before and after and attaching the teat cups. The operator moves from one cow to the other in roomy space to conduct business. You can see how the operator can get a good sense for each cow.
Returning to Beth Kraft’s article, recall she said, “a 140 free stall addition, an earthen manure lagoon, 24x90 silo, a 20x40 harvester for high-moisture corn, and a TMR mixer with second bunk feeder were all added at the time.” By now, we are pretty familiar with the terminology. The manure lagoon, however, caught my attention.
“Many livestock producers with confinement operations handle their animal waste as a liquid because of the laborsaving advantages. Anaerobic lagoons are an integral part of many liquid-handling systems. Lagoons are pondlike earthen basins sized to provide biological treatment and long-term storage of animal waste. A livestock lagoon is a small-scale waste treatment plant containing manure that is usually diluted with building wash water, water wasted at animal waterers, and rainfall. In a lagoon, the manure becomes partially liquefied and stabilized by bacterial action before eventual land application.”
Cow manure is a huge and controversial subject. I cannot hope to even touch the surface of the issues here. UW-madison Dairland Initiative has a good paper on the subject, “Manure management.” The issues associated with disposal of cow manure are many: manure storage design and management; odor; Runoff and seepage into soil and the water table; Repair; testing; regulation and enforcement; and the matter of concentrated animal feeding operations, CAFOs and all that such an operation entails.,
CAFOs are factory farms, industrialized farms, business enterprises that for some are no longer farms but instead manufacturing enterprises. This photo drawn from Wisconsin Public Radio shows an aerial view of the Rosendale Dairy CAFO in Fond du Lac County. CAFCOs are popping up throughout the country.
The Danzinger farm was not and is not a CAFO. I introduce the subject here, however, because CAFOs are challenging regulators. communities, and dairy farmers in major ways. Dairy farmers have a very hard time competing with these industrialized operations.
“Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are agricultural meat, dairy, or egg facilities where animals are kept and raised in confined situations … The US EPA defines CAFOs as livestock operations where the animals are confined for at least 45 days in a 12-month period and have no grass or other vegetation present in the confinement during the normal growing season. In Wisconsin, a CAFO generally means a livestock operation with 1000 animal units. Animal units are based on the weight of the animals. The concentrated design of CAFOs can also pose many challenges, including bulk storage and
application of large volumes of animal wastes and associated nuisance odors and noise.”
Let’s return to Beth Kraft’s article about the Danzinger farm expansion of 1979. It also included a “24 x 90 ft silo and 20 x 40 harvester for high moisture corn.”
There are horizontal silos and vertical silos. The Danzingers added a vertical silo. The US department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), says “The two most important types of vertical silos are the conventional and oxygen-limiting or ‘controlled atmosphere.’”
I believe the Danzingers added a conventional silo, “built of reinforced concrete pads and concrete staves, curved rectangular-shaped concrete blocks held in place by reinforcing bands made of high strength steel.”
The “20x40 harvester for high moisture corn” helps producers get a head-start on harvesting corn. Dairy Herd Management tells us “the ideal moisture content at harvest is 28-34 percent.” It adds that “quality can be fragile and hinges on careful decisions.”
“Corn agronomy, where science meets the field,” published hby UW-Madison, says, “High moisture corn is, as the name implies, corn harvested before the kernels dry down, usually processed by a roller mill or hammer mill, packed into an appropriate structure and allowed to ferment.”
This paper describes the advantages and disadvantages of harvesting high-moisture corn. My take on it is that high-moisture corn is better for the cattle and better for milk production than dry harvested corn.
Finally, in 1979 the Danzingers also added another TMR mixer, which I introduced earlier.
Disaster struck both Danzinger farms in May 1981. Beth Kraft said many buildings were damaged or destroyed by a tornado. The Danzinger brothers decided not only to rebuild but to increase their herd to 200 cows. As an aside, a third brother joined the pack: Jeffrey, who had been teaching agriculture.
The growth of the Danzingers’ farm operations continued. They increased their herd to 350 cows in the 1980s-1990s, got a new herringbone milking parlor, new manure storage system, and a new feed center using bunker silos. They began a feeding program with the TMR mixer on a truck.
The bunker silo was something new to the Danzinger operation.
Wikipedia says, “Bunker silos are trenches, usually with concrete walls, that are filled and packed using tractors and loaders. The filled trench is covered with a plastic tarp to make it airtight.” They offer large volume storage at low investment, and ease of getting the silage out.
This is a Google Earth image of the DS Farm on CH E in Alma. You can see the extensive use of bunker silos. You can also see the manure lagoon.
There is an excellent YouTube video addressing packing the corn silage in a bunker, produced by Dettman Dairy Farm. This is a snapshot from the video. I like this presentation. It shows an empty bunker to the right built of concrete walls, a filled bunker to the left, weighed down by cut-up old tires, and a packing operation in the center. A semi-truck shown on top of the photo dropped off corn silage and a tractor in the center is packing it. The semi returned to the harvested field to pick up more silage, and it then returned to dump it into the bunker; a choreographed operation!
The Danzingers then bought another farm, this one belonging to Gerald neitzel in 2002. Then in 2005 they bought yet another farm, the Ken Passow Farm.
Malcom M. and David started to transition out of the diary business in 2003, handing responsibilities over to David’s three sons, Matthew, Patrick and Jonathan. Jonathan sold his shares of the farm in 2011. Matt and Patrick bought the rest of the farming business in 2015.
Their herd rose to 600 cows, and their land holdings consist of about 1,600 acres growing corn, soybeans, alfalfa, and winter wheat. The third generation is now in charge. The two brothers continue to make improvements and additions.
As the proud father of two daughters, I noted from Beth Kraft’s article that the female children of generations two and three received little mention.
Melvin M. and Carolyn Danzinger had five children, three girls, Kristin, Jenny, and Sara, and two boys, Mike and Adam.
David and Cindy Danzinger had three boys, Matthew, Patrick, and Jonathan. You know about these three.
But what about the three girls? I’ve looked around the internet for them and came up short.
As one might expect, I found Mike and Adam.
Mike Danzinger owns Danzinger do-it, LLC in Madison. He earned a BS Engineering from UW-Madison. He boasts that he was a utility farm hand at DS Farms from 1990-2002.
Adam Danzinger graduated from Alma High School in 2002, and graduated with a BA, Agricultural Engineering from UW-River Falls in 2006. He is now Director of Customer Solutions at Lely, North America, a company that is a market leader in automated systems for dairy producers.
I’ve not been so lucky with the three girls. On their behalf, and in closing, I will drop back to Peggy Prilaman Marxen’s book, “The Farm on Badger Creek.” Ms. Marxen wrote,
“Badger Creek and its companion tote road shaped our lives … There wasn’t much that I didn’t know about dairy cows. They bookended our daily existence and kept the pace of our lives … Our herd’s health meant our livelihood… Our lives were entwined with the rhythm of the herd, season by season …
“I write to honor those pioneers of old, my family and wider community as our lives unfolded near the banks of Badger Creek."
I am sure the Danzinger girls would share these memories.
