Gold Star Dairy, LLC
Nov 12, 2019
“Grandpa was in the era of clearing the land and setting the farm up,” David Geiser said. “Today our practice is to plant that same corn field with the least amount of disturbance. Agriculture is food and fiber and somebody has to produce it, but today the biggest challenge is sustaining our environment and how we go about doing that.”
David’s grandpa started his farm in 1912, then in 1939 David’s dad, Victor, took over and in 1975 David chose to follow along the same path. It was the history of the farm that inspired him to make his decision. He studied his heritage and learned that his grandpa was third in a family of 9 and his dad was sixth of 8 children. David also learned about how his parents were able to acquire the farm in the 30’s from his grandpa and what they had to do to buy it. As he learned more about what his grandpa and dad went through, it made him aware that this was an ongoing progression and he needed to be a part of it.
The farm is called Gold Star Dairy, LLC and is located in New Holstein, Wisconsin. David and his wife, Deb, have a partnership with Manuel Valenzuela for the farming operation. Their son, Josh, works on the farm and is the Systems Engineer. Working with the family can be challenging at times with your social interaction and your business together all the time. David advises that it is relationships and partnerships in both parts, from husband and wife; parents and children; to co-workers. He recommends finding what you are good at and you’ll be happy doing it.
David’s favorite job on the farm is ‘growing things’, like forage crops, but they do not grow all of their own feed. Some of what they feed their herd comes from other growers. When they started out, they purchased feed as they grew their herd. Looking back, David recalls that the 1980s were challenging. “We had 3 little boys, we were milking 80 cows and we had some high school labor,” he said. “It was 18% interest. We made it through that one, but it really sticks out as a tough experience.”
David is a member of the Calumet County Forage Council and the Calumet County Holstein Breeders. Outside of agriculture, he enjoys geology.
Thank you to David and the members of Gold Star Dairy for sharing their story for this week’s Farmer Friday. It is interesting to take a look back to where the farm started. We send our best wishes for success to David, Deb, their family and their operation!
#FarmerFriday ...post #112.. To show our appreciation to our producer members Country Visions Cooperative will be giving a snapshot look of our customers and their operations in this feature each Friday.