Krescent Valley Dairy

06/21/2025

She picked a pretty hot day to have her 1st calf.

01/17/2025

Pressure washing waterers today before the deep freeze.

06/22/2024

A "glue guy". Every business has one and on a farm they are especially important. A glue guy can go 5 mins down the road to swipe a part from a neighbor at 10:00 at night or drive a hundred miles first thing in the morning to get a part that is needed for the day. A glue guy can work three 12 hr days in a row then not be needed for weeks. A glue guy knows where every supplier is, where every field is and has a general knowledge of all the little tasks that need to be done even if they are only around once and while. Krescent Valley Dairy lost it's glue guy last week Jerry Hassinger aka "Hass".

Running to get parts or helping with field work weren't his only roles in my life. We bowled together for many years in the farmers league making jokes about all the things he and the other "old guys" lived through that "I had read about in history class". He also came over most Sundays during the footbath season to watch the Packers games in the shop, discussing everything from personnel to play calling, he kind of felt like an uncle to me but more than that he was a friend.

Death gets all of us eventually and Hass passed the same way he lived, nice and easy. Rest in peace buddy.

05/31/2024

Two dogs raking hay. 🐕🚜🐕

05/30/2024

Now Winnie is cutting hay

05/30/2024

Winnie starting off her day tedding hay with uncle Charlie

05/23/2024

1st crop hay going down. Hopefully we can dance around the raindrops and get it chopped tomorrow and Saturday.

05/07/2024

We don't have enough feed, space or ability to properly raise all of our heifers. Because of this we take them to a heifer raiser when they are about 10 months old where they are cared for and bred, returning to us appropriately 2 months before they have their first calf. Proper heifer growth is critical to create a profitable cow and Jason, Ed, Nathan and the rest of the team at Prairie Dairy Inc. Custom Dairy Replacements do an excellent job at it.

‘It’s a bigger industry than a lot of people realize’

01/14/2024

Thanks to the Village of Germantown DPW for clearing our road and helping dig out one of our employees cars. Cows got milked and fed and the milkman can get down here to pick up our milk.

10/24/2023

Beautiful day out on the lake. 🚣‍♂️

07/02/2023

June is national dairy month and in celebration we will be doing a 30 for 30 style post. 30 pictures and posts sharing about our animals, our farm and our family.

Today's post (29 of 30)

Family Spotlight: 4th Generation Gordon and Karen Kraemer 1960-2010. (Granny and Grandpa)

This week we are going to feature each generation on the farm. A profile of the family and farming as it was during their time. Like a lot of farms our farm has been passed down from one generation to the next. The years of ownership listed are roughly the time period each generation was the primary operator.

Gordon and Karen took over the farm from Ed and Leona. Gordon was born and raised on the farm along with his two sisters. Karen was born and raised on her family's farm in West Bend (Peil/Hembel Family), the farm is still in the family today.Her mother ran the farm nearly by herself along with her six kids.

Gordon and Karen got married in 1967 and had one child a daughter, Michelle, in 1968. Together they milked cows from 1967 to 2001. Typically milking about 30-40, they put in a pipeline and built one of the first freestall barns in the area.

Milk was shipped to many different places, intially Sealtest in Milwaukee Wis, then to Golden Guernsey out of Waukesha, Wis then finally Foremost Farms

In 2001 with the facilities and their bodies wearing down Gordon and Karen sold the cows and retired to raising steers and cash cropping.

They still live down the road at a house they moved to in 1987, shortly before their daughter was married and moved into the farm house.

Despite getting up there in years (he's 90, she's 80) they still enjoy coming down to the farm to go for a walk in the freestall barn and driving "around the section" to check out what the neighbors are doing.

06/30/2023

June is national dairy month and in celebration we will be doing a 30 for 30 style post. 30 pictures and posts sharing about our animals, our farm and our family.

Today's post (28 of 30)

Family Spotlight: 3rd Generation Edward and Leona Kraemer 1920-1960

This week we are going to feature each generation on the farm. A profile of the family and farming as it was during their time. Like a lot of farms our farm has been passed down from one generation to the next. The years of ownership listed are roughly the time period each generation was the primary operator.

Ed and Leona were the 3rd generation to run the farm. Ed grew up on the farm with his 3 brothers and 2 sisters. As one of 12 kids to 1st generation Americans, Leona grew up on a farm in Cedarburg. Her maiden name was Kasten, the Kasten farm continues today under the same family.

Ed and Leona met when Leona was walking from her family's farm in Cedarburg to her brothers place in Richfield and passed by Ed who was out working in the fields.

Ed and Leona got married in 1922, farmed together and raised three children; Ruth, Gladys and Gordon. During their farming tenure they experienced some of the most drastic changes to the farm. Electricity came to the area and the farm in the 1920s, indoor plumbing became the norm, cows began to be milked with machines and in the 1950s tractors replaced horses.

Ed was in charge of the fieldwork and animals as the herd grew to a whopping 15 cows! During that time period chickens were a popular and profitable business many farm wives engaged in. Leona raised and cared for upwards of 300 chickens at a time. Eggs were taken to Milwaukee to be sold. Milk was sold to Luick's Dairy in Milwaukee Wis.

Ed and Leona retired in the late 60s and moved to West Bend. Ed died a few years later in 1972 at the age of 81. Leona passed away in 1988 one day shy of her 90th birthday.