Rosendale Dairy - Rosendale WI. Tuesday, 30 August

On our second day of the trip we toured a  massive dairy farm called Rosendale Dairy. This farm is located in Rosendale Wisconsin, and houses  8400 cows in two 400 ft by ¼ mile long barns.  There are 80 employees,  and it takes 3 TMR mixers to keep the cows fed.   Each cow gets milked 3 times per day; Rosendale milks 21 hours a day using two - 80 cow rotary parlors, leaving 3 hours of cleaning time between the milking shifts.  The barns have 16 sections running the length of the barn, each holding 600 cows.  The barns were built in 2008 and started out with only 600 cows - in 2010 they reached capacity with 8400 cows. This farm only houses fresh, dry, and lactation cows. Calves are in the barn for about one day before being shipped to another facility to be cared for. 

One of the unique things about Rosendale is the way that they have chosen to ventilate the barn. The barn roof has no vents. All the air comes through the long walls of the barn through what looks like conjugated cardboard; water is run through this material on hot, humid days to help cool the barn.  The opposite wall has fans which draw the air through.   Inside the barn, walls come down from the ceiling within 8 ft of the floor, forcing the air to move along the ground.  All the cows are comfortable and fly free with the amount of air moving through the barn. The stalls in the barn are bedded down with course sand which is recycled, sanitized and reused. 

Rosendale milks mainly Holsteins, with a few Jersey and other cross breeds. There are no holding tanks; the milk is filtered, chilled, and pumped directly into 6000 gallon tankers, which transport the milk to a local cheese factory.    Rosendale fills 12 of these tankers per day.  The farm does not have a full time vet but many of the herds persons are trained to do a number of many vet tasks.

Rosendale farms has 3 large lagoons where all the waste is transferred. The haylage is stock piled into huge piles covered in bunker plastic and tires (see the picture with the bus in front of one to get an idea of how big they are). Feeding starts at 4:00 am and takes until 2:30 pm to finish.  On an average day they breed 100 cows, and 24 calves are born.

This farm was amazing.  It was neat to see everything that they process and do in one day.

Jenn Howe

Rushing Waters Fishery - Palmyra WI. Monday, 29 August

Today on our last stop of the day we visited the Rushing Water Fisheries. They produce 300,000 lbs of rainbow trout annually in outdoor ponds. Our tour guide Drew showed us the two hatcheries where they received 150,000 fertilized eggs 4 times per year.  When we were in one of the hatcheries we were able to catch the 7-10 month old fish.   Smaller fish stay in tanks in the hatchery, and then are moved outside into spring and well-fed ponds.  Water from the wells comes out at 48^oF.  Drew told us that it take roughly 16-18 months before the rainbow trout is ready to be harvest. They only get females because the males are smaller and not as appealing. We learned along our tour that fish grow efficiently   because they don’t use energy to keep themselves warm, or to supporting themselves since they are floating in the water.  Rushing Water Fisheries only uses feed with no animal byproducts.  Natural predators are a constant problem, so some of the ponds are netted.  Customers can also borrow a fishing pole and catch their own fresh trout, which is then cleaned and packaged for them.  A favorite saying of our tour guide is “maximize efficiency, maximize sufficiency.”   At the end of the tour were able to see them cut the fish up.  They sell all the fish fresh, not frozen and only harvest and process fish to fill orders.  The “buy local” trend has helped their business, and they have no problem selling all they produce.  Local grocery stores also carry Rushing Water trout.  It is available bone in, bone out, fillets, and smoked. 

Matthew Reesor

University of Wisconsin, Madison WI - Dr. Shawn Conley. Monday, 29 August

Our first stop of the trip was at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Dr. Shawn P. Conley, State Soybean and Small Grain Extension Specialist, discussed his role at the campus, history of the campus, the agricultural sector in Wisconsin, the US Farm Bill, and the production sector.

An extension specialist is a cross between an OMAFRA employee and a University of Guelph employee; Shawn’s role at the campus is 60% extension and 40% research. 

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is the most highly regarded agricultural research facility in Wisconsin and the surrounding area.  The university campus sits 933 acres, and also has over 10,000 acres of research plots and trials throughout the state. 

The university is driven by the “Wisconsin Idea”, which means everything done on the campus is not only done for the students or supporting industries,  but also done for all the people of the state of Wisconsin.  The majority of their financing for research comes from producers and companies, and then they can take advantage of the research data. 

The US Farm Bill system began after WWII, to support the domestic agriculture industry.  To describe it simply, it is a minimum price guarantee for agricultural commodities which is re-negotiated every 5 years.  In reality, it is a complex program with many variables and loopholes, and often viewed as a subsidy by other nations. 

One interesting fact is that if you look at a map, Wisconsin and Southern Ontario are parallel with each other.  In turn a lot of the crop production data from Wisconsin could be applied in southern Ontario and vise versa.

Susan Simpson

University of Wisconsin, Madison WI - campus tour. Monday, 29 August

Today was the first day of our tour, and we started it off with a trip to the University of  Wisconsin at Madison.  First, we met with Dr. Shawn Conley who discussed the US Farm Bill and other aspects of farming in Wisconsin.  Then we met up with our Campus tour guide, Cara. Cara is a Spanish and Environmental Sciences major and is a junior at U of Wisconsin. She took a one week course on how to give tours of the campus, so we knew she was well prepared to show us around the massive 933-acre campus. The campus is filled with large and small buildings that are both old and new, including 42 libraries. She showed us both styles of residence living: on the lake shore in the large old stone buildings versus the newer more apartment-style urban buildings. Because they are situated between two lakes, they are able to have their own fleet of sailboats for students to use.  Abraham Lincoln signed the bill in 1848 which made the University of Wisconsin a land-grant university, allowing them to develop and expand because of the cheap land.  Because of this, he has a statue on campus which people will rub for good luck. It is also tradition to sit on his lap once you have graduated. The most interesting part about the campus was the fact that they produce their own dairy products from their own dairy herd! How cool is that! All in all, it was a beautiful campus and I would love to have the opportunity to visit again.

From the dairy state,

Sarah Jackson

Hello Madison, WI. Sunday, 28 August

After a minor problem with the bus and many reruns of "Friends", we arrived in Madison, WI.  Off to the University of Wisconsin, Madison tomorrow.

Departure Time.

Attention Students,

Please be at Campus by 12 p.m. on Sunday August 28th. The bus leaves at 1 p.m. sharp outside the RDC building.