McFarlandale Dairy

09/02/2026

It’s been HOT around here lately! ☀️🥵 Despite the heat, there’s been plenty happening at McFarlandale Dairy!

Last week, four members of our team had the opportunity to attend a UW-Madison Extension Dairy Program workshop focused on best practices for cattle vaccination and medication administration. The training covered proper handling and administration of vaccines and animal health products, along with hands-on learning. They came back saying it was a great training! We’re always grateful for opportunities to invest in our team and continue learning ways to provide the best care possible for our animals. 🐄💉📚

On Saturday, we also had the opportunity to help Jefferson Veterinary Clinic celebrate 75 years of service! 🎉 We’ve been fortunate to work with Dr. Rob and Susie for more than 25 years. They are a huge part of our team, providing herd health care for our cows at both dairy sites as well as our youngstock. Relationships like these are incredibly valuable in agriculture, and we’re thankful for their knowledge, dedication, and friendship over the years. Congratulations to the entire Jefferson Veterinary Clinic team on 75 years! ❤️🐄

And yesterday brought a little extra excitement to the farm… 25 new calves! 🐮💕 We welcomed these beautiful girls from Larson Acres as we continue growing our herd and preparing for our new milking facility. They’ve settled into their new home, and we’re excited to watch them grow over the coming months!

Between continuing education, celebrating longtime partners, welcoming new animals, and keeping everyone comfortable through the heat, there’s never a dull moment around here. We’re thankful for a great team and excited for everything ahead! 🌾🐄❤️

08/26/2026

Neighbors helping neighbors, farmers helping farmers, friends helping friends; that’s what it’s all about! Shoutout to Dettmann Dairy Farms for selling us more 4th crop hay! We want to ensure we have enough feed for our girls all year long and our 4th crop was really light due to no rain! Meanwhile Dettmann’s had more acres than they needed so it was a win-win. I’m glad we could each help each other! 🙏 🤝 💪 🐄 🥛

08/25/2026

Happy 41st wedding anniversary to Peter and Cindy! 💒 🎉 🥂

We celebrated with cake and ice cream tonight! 😋

08/23/2026

A great weekend from celebrating our feeder, Jake getting married to supporting the youth in the Dairy Youth Recognition Auction and watching Annabelle show in Little Britches!

08/19/2026

Another shameless plug for Adopt A Cow! Make sure to sign up, we’re selecting calves now and I promise you won’t want to miss it!!

08/17/2026

It’s been a while since we’ve shared a farm update, and as usual, there’s been plenty happening around here! 🐄🌱

Last weekend, we made fourth crop hay. It was a pretty light crop thanks to the lack of rain, but we were fortunate to get some nice showers afterward. It’s amazing to see how much the alfalfa has grown back in just ONE week! 🌧️🌱 We’re definitely thankful for the moisture.

This week was an especially busy one filled with tours, learning, and sharing!

🐄 Tuesday: Robb and Christine had the opportunity to visit three dairies—Abel Dairy, Trillium Hill and Betley’s—to tour their rotary parlors. With our own rotary project ahead, it’s always valuable to see different setups, learn from other dairy farmers and bring ideas back home.

🐮 Wednesday: Sydney and Christine toured Calf Source as part of the PDP Calf Facility Tours. It was a great opportunity to see another calf-raising operation and exchange ideas about calf care and facilities.

🏡 Thursday: It was our turn to host! We welcomed about 50 people to McFarlandale Dairy as part of the PDP tour. We shared our calf and heifer facilities, maternity area and calf warming room, and enjoyed lots of great conversations along the way.

It was a great week full of education, new ideas and connecting with others in the dairy industry—all on top of the normal day-to-day work of caring for our animals and keeping the farm moving!

There’s always something to learn in agriculture, and we’re grateful for the opportunity to both visit other farms and open our doors to share ours. 💕🐄

08/05/2026

We’re excited to be hosting tours of our calf facilities next week. Be sure to register in advance! We’ll most likely check out our maternity and heifer barns as well for those that are interested. We by no means have all the answers but are happy to share our experience and excellent results!

We're just one week away from exploring three Wisconsin dairies and their different approaches to raising calves.

August 11 - Truttmann Dairy LLC, Blanchardville
See a nursery barn and GEA auto feeders running on a working dairy.

August 12 - Calf Source, De Pere
This stop is now full.

August 13 - McFarlandale Dairy, Watertown
Tour brand-new all-in, all-out calf facilities built from the ground up.

Spots still available for August 11 and 13. Join one or both.

Register today: pdpw.org/programs/26-calf-tours/details

08/03/2026

Weekly recap:

Thank God for the rain Friday into Saturday! After a month without any rain, we got 5 inches! 🌧️

In preparation for Little Britches at the Dodge County Fair in a few weeks, the girls have been working with Ariel daily! It’s a family affair for sure!

Meanwhile we had a Holstein heifer calf born one month early so she’s been getting extra attention from the calf team and the girls!

Meet Peanut 🩷 46 lbs and 2.5 buckets tall😅 a proud member of the empty bucket club!

Finally, this week Robb and Christine celebrated their 10 year wedding anniversary! They were also fortunate to attend the Farm to Fork Gala hosted by Heim’s Hillcrest Dairy in Kewaunee. It was a great event and we loved touring the new milking facility and freestall.

07/29/2026

Register now for Adopt A Cow through Discover Dairy! We are very excited to be a host farm again! Early enrollment ends September 1. It’s a great program, anyone can register and it’s completely FREE! Please feel free to drop any questions you may have below!👇

07/24/2026

More fun taking a calf into town to help educate and make people smile! 💕