Condon Family Farm

We are 5 in our family. My parents, Lisa & Robert, my elder sister Kelly (Age 11), my elder brother, Adam (Age 9) and me, Kimberly (Age 6). We have a huge farm and run a total of 471 acres of land and milk 155 Holstein dairy cows three times a day.

We also raise peas and sweet corn for Seneca Foods. They are labeled under Green Giant. My parents rented Bob’s father’s farm in 1984 and bought the cattle and machinery. In 1988, they purchased our present farm in Dodge County. It is away from the urban Milwaukee in the USA. We are proud of keeping our farm organized and clean. We have 4 workers and they are all responsible for different duties in the farm. Two of them work part-time so they come early in the mornings and leave after lunch time. The other two people work full-time and they do a satisfying job. I sometimes help them look after the cows, too.

We have 4 cattle barns, 5 silos, and 2 machine sheds in the farmland. We grow corn and hay to feed the cows. Working in a farm is not easy. It is a full-time job. There is a lot of seasonal work. For example, we harvest hay in August and corn in late September. The cows eat the entire plant when it is chopped into small pieces.

Inside our largest barn the cows eat at least 100 pounds of feed per cow per day. This feed consists of chopped hay and corn plants (silage), with shelled corn, soybeans and extra minerals. It looks like cow salad. Working in a farm is sometimes stressful as you have to be organized, punctual and practical. 130 cows are milked in 2 hours, but we milk the cows 3 times a day (every 8 hours). Watching the time matters here! Each cow produces 8.5 gallons of milk per day on average. The milk is cooled in a large stainless steel tank. A large truck picks up 2200 gallons of milk every other day from our farm! My dad says farming is not very easy but it is rewarding, so he is satisfied with the business and planning to start another farm next year.