When you see a photograph of Angela (Hildebrandt) Grotjan interacting with a dairy calf, you would think she never considered a career other than caring for calves on the family farm in northern Illinois.
But when studying animal and dairy science and agricultural business at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, she didn’t expect that she would be farming with her family. Her three older brothers were already part of Hildebrandt Farms in Boone County, Illinois, and the dairy farm wasn’t big enough to support more people in 2016.
“But I knew I would work in agriculture,” she says.
After she graduated from college, the family was able to expand its operation enough to make room for her in 2017.
She’s part of three generations operating the dairy farm, including her grandma, parents, uncle, and her three brothers. Grotjan says her three high school-aged cousins are already helping on the farm, but it’s too soon to know who else will want to join the operation.
The goal is to have the opportunity there if they choose to join the family farm someday, she says.
The Hildebrandt family has been milking about 1,000 cows at their rotary parlor in South Beloit near the Wisconsin border since 2017.
“We produce almost all our own feed,” Grotjan says.
Her uncle Don heads up the cropping part of their operation. With the help of her father and brothers, they grow corn, soybeans, sorghum, hay and rye.
Milk runs deep in this family’s history.
“I’m the fourth generation on my grandmother’s side and third generation on my father’s side,” she says.
Everybody in the family has their own way to contribute. Grotjan works with newborn to 4-month-old calves.
For dairy farmers today, finding good employees is one of the ongoing challenges.
“We’ve been lucky,” Grotjan says of the farm which has about a dozen full-time employees.
Source:agupdate.com
Photo Credit: GettyImages-R-J-Seymour
Categories: Illinois, Livestock, Dairy Cattle