I’m Kendra Thewis and I’ve come to my last resort in asking for anyone that can help to please consider doing so as soon as possible.  I’ve lived on a dairy farm my entire 33 years on this Earth besides when I went away to college at UW-River Falls.  My husband and I work on my father in laws dairy farm in Mellen, WI.  This is a remote location therefore we only have so many options when it comes to choosing where our supplies and feed comes from.  Our farm dates back to 1935.  My husband and I have been looking for ways that we can become the successors but debt has been an issue for the past 10 years.  I believe it is a combination of consistently low milk prices and the barn fire we had in March of 2009.  We had to take out a large amount of money to replace our milking parlor and buy more cows to replace the ones that perished in the fire.  We also put stalls in another machine shed to fit the additional cows instead of building an expensive new barn.  At this time prices were only $9/$10 per hundred pounds of milk shipped.  This was probably the worst time to have a fire.  

Flash forward to the present we consistently milk about 130 dairy cows.  In the just over 10 years I’ve been on this farm with my husband milk price was only a decent price at $23/$24 one year.  Most dairy farmers need at least $17/hundred pounds of milk just to pay the bills.  Once you have to start putting expenses on credit lines it piles up fast with interest.  The current pay price per hundredweight milk shipped without any premiums has been hovering around $14.  I’m sick and tired on having the bank tell us to increase our cow numbers.  This is not a solution and is just adding to the current milk supply problem.  I feel if we can get rid of our unsecured debt, hopefully we can stay current on bills.

In addition to the farm my father in law runs a school bus business because when you farm, another source of income is usually needed to offset high farm costs.  My husband also relief drives.  These men work the equivalent of 2 full time jobs most weeks.  Their work ethic is annoyingly good.  My husband and I have two small children.  I do all evening milkings, calf chores, and cleanup.   My kids love the calves and I’m working to teach them important life lessons on the farm.  
 
This is our lifestyle.  Our legacy.  It’s not just a job to us.  It’s more than that.  It’s working to produce a quality product to feed people.   Not everyone wants to farm and that’s ok but do we really want to have such limited options when all the family farms go under?  We want our children to grow up and learn the way life works and in turn develop a great work ethic we think only growing up on a farm provides.  This truly is a family farm.  We have no outside employees.  

I don’t want anyone to think we are freeloaders.  We have gotten into a poor position like I know many other farmers are currently facing.  My hope is that people can see that this is a genuine cry for help.   If you choose to help just know that it will be going into helping us make a quality product, milk.  The cows continue to eat and let me tell you they eat a lot!  Thanks for reading.   Please watch my video if you haven’t already.  Worried mama and farmer right here signing out.