"New Holland helps family farm build success"

New Holland helps family farm build success

Terry Meyer says their New Holland FX38 self-propelled forage harvest helps them get the crop off fast.

The Meyer's farm has 40 years of history

They set a lot of goals at Badger Holsteins in Unity, Wisconsin. When Larry and Virginia Meyer started the family-owned farm in the late 1960s, their aim was to create an ideal place to raise a family, have high-producing registered Holstein cattle, have very productive land, maintain a neat farmstead, and never give up on being profitable and progressive.

Today, the ownership has grown to an LLC including Larry and Virginia, their son, Jeff, and his wife, Louanne, and another son, Terry, and his wife, Stacy. Over the years, all the Meyer children (Don, Jeff, Nancy, Terry, Joe, Kim and Kay) have helped grow the operation and meet those goals set nearly 40 years ago.

Badger Holsteins has grown to 600 cows and 620 young stock. They sell breeding stock all over the state and have AI (embryo) contracts all over the world. The registered Holstein cattle are also an important part of family life on the farm. At the district show this June, eight of the Meyer grandchildren showed cattle and the family participates in many different fairs each summer.

Terry, Jeff and Larry Meyer run the Badger Holsteins operation. They raise registered Holstein cows and young stock on their farm in Unity, Wisconsin, and sell breeding stock throughout the state and embryos throughout the world.

"When putting feed in the bunkers, the faster you get it in, the better you can pack it. The FX is the main machine for getting it off quickly."
—Larry Meyer

Speed counts

To help achieve that high quality, the family uses a New Holland FX38 self-propelled forage harvester. Besides the cows and young stock they raise, the Meyers also farm 1,875 tillable acres. Most of that (about 1,000 acres) is corn, but they also raise oats, alfalfa, and mixed hay. "Having high-nutritional-value haylage and corn silage is very important to our milk production and dairy cattle health," says Jeff Meyer, who oversees the dairy cattle.

This year is their third season with the FX38. "We replaced an FP240 pull-type harvester. We bought the FX right before the corn silage season, because the pull-type chopper would have taken a long time. The FX made us able to crop more acres faster," says Terry Meyer, who oversees the equipment on the farm.

"The FP240 had three rows and this one has six," says Larry. "[When we bought the FX38] it was a dry fall and we had to get the crop off fast. When putting feed into bunkers, the faster you get it in the better you can pack it. We use our TJ for packing and the FX is the main machine for getting it off quickly."

Family is very important to the Meyer's success. Pictured are Terry and his wife Stacy and their children Tyler, Cody and Brayden; Larry and Virginia and their daughter Kay; and Jeff and his wife Louanne and their children Amber, Jake, Zack and Nate.

Besides the speed it gives them, they also like the consistent chopping length of the FX and the minimal downtime and ease of maintenance. "The important thing with haylage is you have to have good equipment with minimum breakdowns. If it's sunny and windy the moisture changes very quickly and you have to chop at the same speed that you are cutting. You can't get a half day or one day or even a few hours behind," says Larry.

The efficiency of the FX led them to another new purchase. "We bought a second 1431 Haybine® mower-conditioner this spring. We have another one just like it that is fairly problem-free so we figured we'd buy another one," says Terry.

"We always pick the weakest link and try to improve that every year," adds Larry. "This year, we felt our cutting ability was the constraint so we added another Haybine."

Still growing

The Meyers also rely on a New Holland TJ275 4WD tractor to help them on the farm. They bought it three years ago and have put 3,000 hours on it.

"It mainly does all the tillage in the spring and some in the fall and we put a blade on it for packing silage in the summer. The TJ replaced an older power-shift tractor," says Terry. "We needed a more reliable tractor, the visibility is good and the maintenance is low."

This was added to the fleet of six New Holland tractors, four New Holland skid steers, and one New Holland payloader. If they ever do have a problem with any of their equipment, the good dealer support they have relied on for many decades is still there, too. "They always have parts available, or if they have parts on the lot they will pull them off and get us going," says Terry.

"Whenever our pull-type chopper was down they would help us with a replacement and the same with the tractor. They always made sure we had something when we needed it. Even on the weekends if we have all kinds of hay to harvest someone will come out," says Larry.

Like the good dealer support they have received over the years, Badger Holstein's commitment to success has also stayed the same. Just like it was 40 years ago, the Meyer family is still setting goals to improve the production of their land and their cattle and to continue their growth.

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