A Solid Foundation

By Scott Cernek
COLUMNIST
What a great summer it has been so far. The crops, that got in the ground a little late this spring, have caught up nicely over the past several weeks and they look very strong. In fact the crops are looking good throughout the entire Midwest again this year.
We had a chance last week to travel across part of the cornbelt as we took a quick trip down through Indiana, Ohio, and West Virginia on our way to see some dear friends in Lynchburg, Virginia.
As we sailed along down the turnpike, we saw some great looking crops along the way. On our return trip, we drove through Tennessee, Kentucky and all the way up through Illinois, and I must say the crops are looking pretty good for another fine harvest.
My wife and I are getting ready to move back to southwest Wisconsin later in August where we will have the opportunity to do some farming of our own right near most of our family. We will be joining the neighborhood where my Dad and three brothers are farming about 4,000 acres and milking about 400 cows all together.
It has been my dream to someday return to farming and after 27 years of teaching and coaching here in Clinton, the opportunity to operate my own small dairy farm there has materialized, and we are excited about making the move.
The farm I will be on is just a few acres, but has a newly renovated free stall barn with a very modern milking parlor that houses about 40 cows, so it’s quite small in today’s world of big dairies.
I will be buying all my feed from

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