Mielkes Set to Host Shawano County Dairy Brunch

By Karen Lee, Managing Editor
Thursday, June 12, 2008 8:09 AM CDT

It’s been 16 years since Dale and Debbie Mielke and their family last hosted Shawano County’s Brunch on the Farm, and they are thrilled to welcome it back for its 25th year.

The brunch is set to take place on Sunday, June 28 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Mielke’s “S-Curve” Dairy between Marion and Caroline.

The Mielkes have been farming on this bend in the woods since Dale’s grandfather purchased the farm in 1926 and it became the Mielke Brothers Farm. The brothers passed the farm on to their sons n Dale’s father and his uncle, George, also known as “Jack”.

After Dale and Debbie were married in 1980, they purchased the cows from Dale’s father. Jack sold his share of the farm to his son Ray. As time went on Dale purchased that half from Ray and they began farming on their own.

When the brunch was first at the dairy in 1992 they were milking in a traditional stanchion barn. Five years later they built their first half of a freestall barn, jumping from 75 cows to 150. They also renovated their stanchion barn into a double-eight swing parlor, which was later changed to a standard parallel parlor. Three years later they put on the other half and the milking herd slowly grew to its current size of 320.

“That’s the highest we can go until we build another barn,” Debbie says. “It just seems to be right for us. We can do whatever we want.”

At this size they are profitable and have enough hired help to allow them to take time off. Plus, they enjoy doing a lot of hands-on work and not having too many people operating their equipment.

Their heifers are kept on the farm until 6 to 7 months of age when they are sent to a heifer ranch in Black Creek. They return to the farm at 60-days bred. The new dry cow and heifer barn that was added to the farm last year allows the heifers to come back a little sooner than they used to.

Any growth for now is to ease some of the crowding in the pens to make life more comfortable for the cows. They also want to improve the quality of their lives and that of their employees. The Mielkes hope to continue to “update and renovate so things don’t fall behind,” Debbie says.

They own 200 acres and rent an additional 300 acres, of which they grow 260 acres of corn and 200 of alfalfa. Some corn is combined, but most is harvested as silage.

They had to buy some corn this year, along with straw and protein purchased for the ration.

One reason this farm family looks forward to hosting the breakfast is to “get people to realize their food is grown and that there is only so much land in the United States to do that,” she says.

The Mielkes’ three children learned that lesson at an early age and have chosen growing and producing food as their careers. Joel is 27 and he works off the farm at a local mill. In his free time, he comes home to help with fieldwork and manure hauling. Angie, 25, is employed by the farm managing the calves and working with the vet and fresh cows. Their son, Jamie, 22, is also employed by the farm taking care of feeding, cropping and hauling manure.

In addition, the farm has two full-time and four part-time milkers.

Dale and Debbie do “everything that needs to be done that no one else does,” she says.

In part, it is for their children that Dale and Debbie decided to host the brunch once again. Sixteen years ago they vowed to do it again when their children could be more involved. Now as employees of the farm, they have and will play more active roles with the brunch. The county also specifically sought out a past host for this year to go along with the anniversary-themed event.

This year there will be silver balloons and special 25th anniversary decorations. They’ve also contacted all previous brunch hosts in hopes of putting together a display highlighting all 25 years. On the day of the event, the Shawano County Dairy Promotion Committee will present past hosts with a token of appreciation.

The brunch includes diced ham in scrambled eggs, pork sausage, hash browns, cheese, rolls with butter, milk, juice, ice cream sundaes with strawberries or maple syrup. As a special anniversary treat, the committee will be serving a brownie sundae with chocolate syrup.

In addition to the meal, the brunch will include miniature horse and cart rides, tractor drawn wagon rides, petting zoo, live music, beef samples by the Farm Bureau Women’s Committee, fire trucks and emergency vehicles, various educational booths, children’s games by the Caroline 4-H Club, and a pedal tractor pull for children.

As hosts, the Mielkes have spruced up their farm and plan to line up some of their equipment with educational signs for people to see. They also plan to keep the morning milking going until 10 a.m. to let the early crowd watch from a viewing window.

“People wonder what happens on a dairy farm, now they have the opportunity to stop out and see,” Debbie says.

The county has actively promoted the brunch in its classrooms. They’ve invited fourth grade teachers from area schools and gave flyers to all third graders to prepare them for their fourth grade agriculture lesson.

The Mielkes used to host a number of classroom activities on their farm when their children were in school. The fourth graders would stop out for Adventures in Dairyland and the kindergarteners came out to pick apples and learn a little about farming, too.

Mielke’s “S-Curve” Dairy was also host to industry groups. In 1998, just after they built their first freestall, they were a stop on a Fox Valley Technical College tour. Their small-step expansion made the Mielkes’ farm a featured stop on one of PDPW’s tours in 2004.

Today, the Mielkes enjoy going on tours now instead of hosting them.

They utilize their PDPW membership by serving on the organization’s planning committee and taking advantage of the educational opportunities, specifically the tours and seminars.

“They treat us really well on the tours,” Debbie comments.

Dale adds, “If you’re on the tour and just pick up one idea; it’s well worth it. You just never know what it could be.”

Meeting with this peer group of farmers they’ve found they learn a lot just talking amongst the group.

After being relieved from her milking duties a year ago, Debbie has had the opportunity to get off the farm a little more. She now serves as vice president of the county’s Farm Bureau group and volunteers often at church.

This five-year kidney transplant survivor has also made rural health a priority. Knowing how expensive health care, is she promotes prevention to catch health problems when they are still treatable. “That save us all money,” she says.

Debbie works with the Shawano County Rural Health Initiative encouraging health care for farmers. The program has a nurse that makes on site calls to farmers. It recently received a grant and has joined with the Wisconsin Federation of Cooperatives health care program to encourage more health screenings among the rural population. Another grant enabled the Initiative to create a farm safety certification program. Through the program, a representative visits farms to check equipment, hazards in the barn and chemical storage and deems whether or not it is following good safety standards.

Farm safety will most likely be one of the educational aspects of Shawano County’s Brunch on the Farm on Sunday, June 22.

For those interested in attending the brunch: Mielke’s “S-Curve” Dairy is located between Marion and Caroline on County Highway G. From Highway 45 north go two miles east on G or take Highway G one mile south from Caroline. Tickets are available at the door for $7 per person; children 6 and under are free.

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