A day in Dairyland

Tuesday found us engaged in one of the more pleasurable things we do as editors . . . driving across Dairyland en route to visiting a couple of dairy farms. We squeezed the 377-mile drive in before a paralyzing blizzard hit the southern half of Wisconsin. The farm families were bracing themselves for the first big storm of the season. Earlier that morning, one had moved bred heifers home for the winter from a nearby pasture. At another farm, workers were nailing plywood sheets to the sides of a new, open-air, free stall barn-to-parlor breezeway to cut down on drifting and protect just-milked cows from winter winds.

An early stop for us was one of the 300 Kwik Trip and Kwik Star convenience stores scattered across the Upper Midwest. Interstate 90 and 94 was slushy so we were getting what seemed like about 10 miles to the gallon of windshield washer solution. As we settled up, the clerk asked if we wanted some string cheese to snack on later. We told her that we appreciated her and Kwik Trip promoting cheese since we were in the dairy business. That store (Mauston, Wis.) sells a lot of cheese, and one of it most popular items is fresh curds supplied by a local cheese plant six days a week.

Kwik Trip C-stores have a long history of promoting dairy products, and their Nature’s Touch milk has a loyal following. The chain prides itself on the freshness of its milk, much of which is sold in plastic pouches. Kwik-Trip also  was among the first, if not the first, firm to provide milk in pint and half-pint plastic bottles. Visitors to the company’s web site can take a “dairy tour” which goes through 14 steps that milk takes from cow to store.

While we spent a good deal of time on the interstate (driving conditions were best there), we always like the smaller highways. We love to see what kind of activity is taking place on the dairy farms we pass, whether it is a free stall/parlor setup or stall barn setup, is there a farm sign that tells where their milk goes, and form other impressions.

We were in a region of the state with some large cheese plants and cold storage warehouses. Besides the ubiquitous milk trucks grinding their way from hill top to hill top, we saw dozens of refrigerated semis, most of which we envisioned as loaded with cheese as they cautiously made their way on snow-packed state highways and country trunks. Our day in Dairyland served as a reminder of the incredible impact the dairy industry has on the state of Wisconsin.