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Growing a Three-Family Farm |
JOSEPH KURTZ
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Sons reaching adulthood with the desire to become full-time business partners with their parents provided the impetus for new facilities and major changes in the Kieffer family dairy operation in Dakota County. Wayne and Bernie Kieffer have four sons - Mark, 30; Kevin, 28; Tim, 25; and Nick, 19. Mark is not involved in the dairy operation, but Kevin and Tim joined the operation full time after completing college degrees in animal and plant systems at the University of Minnesota. Kevin completed his studies in 1996 and Tim in 1999. Nick recently finished his freshman year at the U of M. |
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The Kieffer farm, with a current herd of 200 Holsteins, was started by Wayne's great-grandfather in the late 1880s. Wayne began farming full time after graduating from high school in 1959. He and his brother bought heifers and established a herd of 24 Holsteins. In 1967 they remodeled the barn and put in a barn cleaner and bulk tank. They increased the herd to 40 cows and Wayne bought out his brother in 1969. Wayne and Bernie were married in 1970, and Bernie has taken care of bookkeeping and bills for the operation since then. |
 Wayne, Bernie and Tim Kieffer (back row); Kevin Kieffer and employee John Bauer (foreground) |
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"From the time we were married until Kevin came back from college, we milked 40 to 45 cows," says Wayne. "In 1998 we built another heifer shed and bought 20 more heifers. We decided to put up a bigger building to house the cows." The Kieffers considered converting their barn into a milking parlor and putting up a new free-stall barn. But they eventually decided to build new facilities about 150 yards from the existing farmstead. The new location was part of a 40-acre field, and would provide room to grow if the other sons wanted to join the operation. "At our old location we were directly up against a neighboring farm," says Wayne. "We didn't have room to expand to more than 100 cows. The way the land was laid out, there was no room for future growth. And remodeling where we were would have taken a lot of money with the labor involved, and we still would not have had what we really wanted." In addition to choosing a location for their new buildings, the Kieffers had to determine what kind of design to use. "We spent three years looking at other dairy operations," says Wayne. "We went to California, Michigan, Wisconsin, and southern Minnesota to look at a lot of different dairy setups." After deciding on a design, they obtained the help of Arlo Habben of Southern Minnesota Agronomic and Environmental Services. Habben drew up the building layout and planned the manure-handling system to meet state environmental regulations. They selected Jim Kreofsky of Kreofsky Building Systems as their builder. Construction began in fall 1999 and continued through winter. The free-stall barn is 110 by 176 feet with curtain-wall ventilation. It has 204 stalls in six rows with a drive-through alley for feeding. Next to the free-stall barn is a parlor and holding pen. The parlor is a double-8 parallel and is expandable to a double-12. The building with the parlor also has two business offices and a veterinarian room, break room, and bathroom. The Kieffers moved cows into the new barn in May 2000. They had purchased heifers to calve after the new barn was ready, so they were milking 160 cows by fall 2000 and were up to 200 by December. They switched to milking three times a day soon after moving their cows into the new barn. "We were starting milking about 4:30 a.m., and by 2 to 3 p.m. a lot of the [first-lactation] heifers were leaking milk already," Kevin recalls. "So we decided we needed to milk three times a day. Production went up 10 pounds per cow per day just like that." Milking now begins at 4 a.m., noon, and 7:30 p.m. Wayne says they have been fortunate to find part-time help for milking. Although one person can do the milking, they almost always have two people. A neighbor comes to do the early milking, and either Kevin or Tim milks at noon. They have had various people do the evening milking. "Situations such as this can provide three to five hours of work a day for someone who just wants half-time work," says Wayne. "It works out well for a couple where one has a full-time job and the other wants a little extra work." Before the Kieffers moved into their new barn, herd production averaged about 22,000 pounds of milk per cow per year. With the new barn and three-times-per-day milking, production is averaging 27,400 pounds. "We buy dry baled hay, along with cottonseed and a commercial protein mix from Hubbard," says Wayne. "We grow the rest of our feed, including corn silage and haylage." John Bauer, a full-time employee, does most of the feeding. Duane Fowler of Farmers Union in Miesville works with Kevin and Tim to formulate the rations. Young heifers go to a grower about seven miles away. "He does an excellent job with the heifers," says Wayne. "Our heifers average over 1,300 pounds when they come back, and some are not yet two years old. We started sending them off in the fall of 1999, about the time we started construction on the new buildings. We didn't have room for them, and if you don't have room, you don't do a good job." The Kieffers own 360 acres and farm more than 900. Crops include 450 acres of corn, 275 acres of soybeans, 110 acres of alfalfa, and 100 acres of sweet corn and peas contracted for canning. Strong family relationships are a key to the success of the Kieffer family dairy enterprise. Would the type of arrangement they have work for every family? "Probably not," says Wayne. "I think most could do it if they wanted to make the effort. But if you have really conflicting personalities to start with, it would be difficult. Kevin and Tim have always gotten along, and that's very important." "We don't have regularly scheduled meetings," he adds. "But there are a lot of times we have breakfast or dinner together, and that is a good opportunity to talk. If you talk a little every day you kind of keep on top of things. |
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Kevin and Tim both live off the farm and are married, and both their wives work full time off the farm. Both wives grew up on dairy farms. Bernie says the employees are "extremely important" to the success of the dairy. "We have a very good employee (Bauer) who has been with us on and off since high school and is now here full time," she says. "The part-time help is very important also. We've been very fortunate with employees. I think it's important that you pay them fairly, treat them fairly, respect them and honor their wishes for time off." |
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Wayne says the new site with the new barn and parlor have worked out well, but adds, "If you're operating on a shoestring, you definitely don't want to do what we did. You might want to build a free-stall barn and milk in the other barn, and get into the parlor when your free-stall barn is completely filled and you have a good supply of replacements." Tim says that when they were planning their new facilities, "a lot of people told us it wouldn't work - that you have to go to 400 cows. But we thought it would be better to have fewer cows produce more milk, so we've focused on production." Wayne says going from 40 or 50 cows to 500 is too difficult mentally and financially for most people. "It's like trying to run before you know how to walk," he says. "I really feel that in two or three years they [his sons] could handle another barn and doubling the herd because of what we've learned. Some mistakes that weren't financially disastrous at 200 cows could have been at 400 or 500 cows. Change is never comfortable, but if you can take it step by step, it works better." Wayne says adding another barn is a strong possibility if Nick wants to join the operation after finishing college. "Even if he doesn't, Kevin and Tim could still do it if they need to," he adds. Tim says he and his brother work together in choosing bulls and most other aspects of the operation. "We take the work and split it up," he says. "But all of us know what to do and how everything works." Kevin and Tim both say they like working in the family operation better than having an individual operation of their own. "It splits up the work," says Kevin. "And it helps a lot that we don't all have to be here all the time. Everyone gets a week or two of vacation every year." The manure management system includes a liquid storage basin at one end of the free-stall barn. Manure is pushed into a passive sand-and-solids separator with a skid-steer loader. The manure solids remain in the separator and are cleaned out periodically. The liquids flow into the storage basin and are pumped out through an irrigation system onto crop ground. "The system had to be approved and certified by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency," says Habben. "There are a lot of checks to protect the environment." Kreofsky, the builder, recommends that producers do plenty of research on various building designs before going ahead with a new facility. "That way they'll get the end product they will be most satisfied with," he says. He notes that moving to a new site, as the Kieffers did, is often the most economical. "Newer dairies take more room for manure storage facilities," he points out. "And it's generally a good idea to keep feed commodities nearby. Also, ventilation is typically improved by getting away from shelterbelts and existing buildings." John Poepl, chief executive officer of the Vermillion State Bank in Vermillion, worked with the Kieffers on financing their new facilities. He says it can be a challenge for a family to successfully expand a business. "In a family business, you have to know everyone is going to get along - father, sons, daughters-in-law, everyone," he says. "In the Kieffers' case, they're very confident in working with each other in terms of both work skill and desire to get work done. They're a close family, and they trust each other." He said the Kieffers have banked at Vermillion State Bank for many years, going back to when his father was in charge of the bank. "They keep such good control of expenses and are so efficient," he says, "that they don't need as much revenue as others might need to succeed." |
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