![]() Spitzer had an outstanding herd with a 25,000-pound average housed in a tiestall barn with tunnel ventilation. I knew the farm wasn't doing well and went to work for Jeff Spitzer at Livingston.' 'I began helping Tony do some farm work in 1970 when I was 15 yeas old and fell in love with farming. 'My parents came to this dairy, then owned by Tony Kau and which I now own, to buy milk.' he said. He was raised on a hobby farm near Eagle by his dad, a high school biology teacher and mother with five children. Grotjan had to, by necessity, take the famed professor's long-term method to farm ownership: working on a farm, saving money and eventually moving to his own farm and developing a topnotch dairy. On a closer look, however, one will see a transparent walled barn addition, several freestall barns, a hoop barn and long rows of white plastic wrapped bales. It was time.įrom the highway, the farm looks to be a typical dairy set-up from (maybe) the 1960s: long red barn, four Harvestore silos and a two-story farmhouse. Although I've talked with Jim at farm meetings over the years and knew he was doing well, I hadn't visited at the farm since 2005. In 2005, I visited with and wrote about James (Jim) Grotjan, who was milking 170 cows on 35 acres near Eagle in Waukesha County. I vividly remember that professor and his words, and interestingly, his words of wisdom pretty much hold true many decades later. You can: 1) Work on a farm, learn, save money, build equity and eventually buy your own farm 2) Inherit one or 3) Marry one (Marrying one being probably the easiest and fastest).' 'There are generally three ways to become a farm owner. 'The hardest part about farming is to become a farm owner,' he said. ![]() Many years ago as a young student at UW-Madison, I remember a famous economist explaining to an auditorium full of freshman students how farming worked.
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