When they work on finding their place in agriculture and the dairy industry, and at the same time becoming the property of the Family Dairy Farm of Polk, Sawyer and Jillian Tietz have great dreams and goals for their balanced dairy products.
Tietzes won Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation 35 below 35 Sustainable future award for their novel approach to sustainable development.
“We thought that maybe our plans were too outside the world, but then we submitted a request for it and we actually won,” said Jillian. “Maybe we are not completely crazy about this thinking. We have great dreams, but we are also realistic. We will be happy if we reach half of our dreams. ”
When planning a sustainable future, Tietzes used global ideas for a level that works on their family farm, in which they spend 140 cows with parents Jillian, Neil and Janice Jensen, near Comstock.
“There are a million ways to grow,” said Sawyer. “People who are more old school may think that we are stupid, but we really want to just create a future that is clear to us, for the environment and agriculture.”
After the nomination for the award, the Tietzes needed to develop their own definition of sustainable agriculture.
“For us, sustainable development means being good land managers to ensure healthy and productive crops to raise healthy and productive cows,” said Sawyer. “In return, this will create a happy and healthy environment of the farm, which is necessary for work and trying both future consumers and future farmers.”
Tietzes is approaching sustainable development from three different directions – the environment, economics and social aspect.
In search of balanced dairy products, Tietzes hope that the technology will form the basis.
“The Labor Party is a big problem with agriculture and we think that robotics are a good direction for us to take the farm to reduce labor costs,” said Jillian. “We want to be balanced along with our two -leading farm, or maybe one employee.”
Tietzes are interested in processing their own milk to maintain more control over their milk marketing. They plan to start with butter.
“We have Guernsey cows, we want to use the value of this milk,” said Jillian.
Sawyer will start working on the required butter certificates this spring, taking part in classes through Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.
“There are advantages and disadvantages of making butter,” he said. “In machines and butter, less initial investments are required, and butter is more stable, which gives us more marketing options. As for the license and learning of the process, the creation of butter has more qualifications than some other processing options. ”
Because Tietzes wondered how they could build their sustainable dairy products, they said they learned that the sky was a limit. They have the purpose of building a closed input loop for their farm, not shopping.
Tietzes want to lend a hand change the narrative that animal agriculture is harmful to the environment.
“We want not only to dispel this myth, but to prove the opposite-this is animal agriculture and a healthy environment go hand in hand,” said Sawyer. “We want to see the future for small family farms to see how product is productive and healthy, so that animals are doing well and people have access to high -quality nutrition.”
Little farm, great dreams It was written by Danielle Nauman and originally appeared in Dairy Star on January 25. He was again intended for the Wisconsin meeting with the author’s consent.
Sawyer and Jillian Tietz appear as part of the Land® segment, in which Wisconsin Farmers farmers move agriculture in Wisconsin, which present agriculture thanks to their involvement in sustainable development.
