David and Shelly Wangen of rural Hayward are continuing a dairy operation on a farm where cows have been replaced by a large herd of goats.

Sunday, August 05, 2001

David and Shelly Wangen of rural Hayward are continuing a dairy operation on a farm where cows have been replaced by a large herd of goats.

When this particular farm was operated by David’s father, Orin Wangen, milk cows and chickens predominated. Now that has changed. He and his brother, Donny, have taken over this farm and their father lives on another family farm about two miles away.

&uot;We went from dairy cows to goats four years ago,&uot; he said.

&uot;I read about milk goats in the Agri News,&uot; David added. He decided to try this new angle for diversifying the farming operations.

The first four or five goats were purchased from John Weber of Myrtle. Wangen says Weber has helped him with both advice and assistance when needed since then.

&uot;We really got started with the milking when the herd got up to 10 to 15 goats. … I purchased goats here and there and built up the herd in a year and a half,&uot; he explained.

Wangen says goats are rather prolific. Thus, at the present time he estimates there are 200 to 250 goats representing several breeds on the farm. Of this number, Wangen and his hired hand, Kevin Schillito, are milking about 140 goats twice a day.

As production of goat’s milk increased, Wangen had to find a market. He sold the milk to a woman in Pine Island for a short time. Then he made contact with the Mt. Sterling Cheese Co-op in Wisconsin. Now the Wangens are one of 40 family-operated goat dairy farms in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota who are members of the Southwestern Wisconsin Dairy Goat Products Cooperative.

This cooperative was organized in 1976 and purchased the Mt. Sterling Cheese Factory in 1983. Now the Mt. Sterling name is used on the co-op’s labels for its various goat’s milk cheeses and butter. The co-op is one of the nation’s major processors of goat’s milk and the largest producer of raw milk cheddar.

It took two years as a shipper for the Wangens to attain full membership in the cooperative. They now go to Mt. Sterling several times a year for meetings.

Mt. Sterling, Wis., is located in Crawford County, about 26 miles north of Prairie du Chien, and at the junction of State Highways 27 and 171.

Shipping of the goat’s milk from the Wangen farm is handled by the Wisconsin cooperative. David says the bulk truck makes a pickup every fourth day in the warmer months of the year and about every fifth or sixth day in the wintertime.

The milk is tested by the driver before it’s transferred to the truck’s tank.

Wangen confirmed that his milking operations are inspected by both the state’s Department of Agriculture and the Mt. Sterling Cheese Co-op. His farm is rated Grade A.

The Wisconsin cooperative picks up goat’s milk from the Wangens, plus Bruce and Melody Hanson of Sargeant (Mower County), and Sherry Panuska of New Richland.

Milking at the Wangen place is done twice daily. David says 25 goats are milked during each session. The animals go up on an elevated ramp or platform which is actually a converted boat dock.

The mechanical milkers are the type used for cows which have been revised to operate with two cups. Milk from the goats goes into a pipeline system which ends up in a stainless steel storage tank in another room of the barn used for the goats.

&uot;We also pasteurize some of the milk,&uot; David explained. Some is used by his family, purchased by a customer from Albert Lea, and used by Weber.

&uot;A little of everything,&uot; is how Wangen describes the breeds of goats on the farm. There are goats with short horns, long horns, and just nubbins on their heads. Some are colored white and brown, white and black, and nearly all white. There are Swiss Alpines, Nubians with long droopy ears, La Manchas with very short ears, and the Swiss Saanen.

&uot;The Saanen is the best of the herd. They’re the Holsteins of goats,&uot; he said as a reference to this particular breed’s excellent milk production record.

Despite several wild myths, goats on the Wangen farm or anywhere else don’t eat tin cans. However, they might nibble on the paper labels just out of curiosity.

Wangen says his goats are rather &uot;fussy and picky eaters.&uot; Their food consists of corn, oats, some molasses, hay and pasture. He said the goats will eat tree leaves within reach, and sometimes thistles and ragweed.

The goats are housed in a barn once used for chickens and later as an annex for the farm’s cows. These animals like shaded areas in the summer and[prefer to spend most of the winter inside the building. Wangen added that the bedding used is sawdust from a mill in the Moscow-Oakland area. The manure is composted and spread on the farm’s fields.

David Wangen went to school in Hayward and Hollandale and graduated from Albert Lea High School in 1984. Besides farming, he’s a salesman at Northstar Powersports. His wife, Shelly, is a para-educator at Lakeview School. They have two children: Ashton, 10, and Addison, 8.

The Wangen farm is based on 360 acres of corn, soybeans and oats, plus an acreage leased for raising hay, according to David.

&uot;We have beef cows and one horse,&uot; he added.

&uot;Goats are rugged animals with very few problems. They’re easy to take care of,&uot; Wangen said. &uot;Our goal is to milk 250 goats year around.&uot;