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Category: Plowshare

  • In the family way: Raising a daughter and 1,400 cows like her parents did before her

    In the family way: Raising a daughter and 1,400 cows like her parents did before her

    “It’s how my mom raised me,” says this third-generation farmer, beaming down at her firstborn. 

    During this weekly “vet check,” DeHaan and Steiger walk through the entire herd of 700 Holsteins and Jerseys at Heritage Dairy in Everson, Washington, to assess their overall health. As they go, Steiger more closely examines anywhere from 50 to 100 cows that he’s been following or that the farmer wants him to monitor. 

    As Steiger rapid-fires observations for each cow, DeHaan jots down its pregnancy details. Steiger palpates the cow’s uterus and uses a portable ultrasound scanner to determine where it is in its gestation stage and if it’s carrying a bull calf — it’s a boy! — or a heifer calf – it’s a girl! While they work, the cows munch on TMR, or total mixed ration, a specially designed combination of nutrient-rich grains, hay, alfalfa, grass and feed supplements such as whey. 

    On a warm September morning, 26-year-old DeHaan took a break to talk about her love for her work, her hopes for her daughter, and what her father taught her.

    Name: Jana DeHaan 

    1,450: Total number of cows in her care. 700 at Heritage Dairy, 300 at Bel-Lyn Farms and 450 at Paradise Jerseys, all owned by her family.

    Family ways: “We were born and raised in this. As soon as we could walk, we were tagging along with our dad, running around on the farm.”

    1978: When her grandfather Arlyn Plagerman founded Bel-Lyn Farms in Lynden, Wash. Her father, Leroy Plagerman, now runs the operation. 

    Listen to dairy farmer Jana DeHaan tell about a tough lesson her father helped her learn. 

    Note: She mentions a tractor’s PTO, which is a short shaft called a power take-off that connects the tractor to farm machinery.

    Produced by Sarah Sakurazawa

    Music: “Opal,” written and performed by Drew Fichette

    Mom knew best: DeHaan explains her mother, Rhonda Plagerman, home-schooled her children on the family farm, as well as “helping chase cows back in if they got out. She always brought out food if we were stuck on a tractor” finishing up a long day, she recalls. 

    12: Number of kids in the Plagerman family. DeHaan is the fifth of the dozen and the oldest daughter. 

    ‘With our dad’: “Mom would often send us out with our dad — riding in the tractor with him, helping feed the heifers. I remember being so small I’d have to run to keep up with him with his long legs walking!” she laughs. 

    ‘The best way to learn’: “Growing up in it is the best way to learn” farming, says DeHaan. “Looking back on my childhood, I couldn’t imagine a better way to grow up, playing hay forts, playing tag, watching calves being born. It was a really special way to grow up, having all the land to grow up on, riding our horses around our land.”

    ‘I learned everything from my dad’: DeHaan prized most what she learned from her parents but also enrolled in the Running Start program during high school, earning an associate degree from Whatcom Community College in arts and sciences. She says she also worked milking for local farmer Debbie VanderVeen. 

    ‘It’s in your blood’: “You have to love it to do it. When you really love it like we do there’s nothing else you can imagine doing.”

    “To have the opportunity to grow up on a farm will be a huge advantage and blessing in her life.”

    Above and beyond: DeHaan served as the 2015-2016 Whatcom County Dairy Ambassador and as the 2016-2017 Washington State Alternate Ambassador. Her sister Jewel Plagerman was the 2020-2021 Whatcom County Dairy Ambassador. 

    Changing times: “We all started working on the farm, but quite a few of us have left the dairy,” says DeHaan. Her older brother Layton and younger sister Jewel work in the family business. 

    Different path: DeHaan’s husband, Mason, grew up working on Stormhaaven Farm and at Ronelee Farms in Lynden, Washington. Currently, he’s an HVAC technician. 

    “He misses the work,” says DeHaan. “He really enjoyed working on the dairy, but unless you own it there’s not a lot of money in it, you have to really be in deep to make a career of it.”

    Moving forward: “We hope to pass it on to a future generation,” says DeHaan as Kinleigh coos at a cow. “She already enjoys tagging along with me.”

    Growth pattern: “If she wants to go into farming, to have the opportunity to grow up on a farm will be a huge advantage and blessing in her life.”

    Motherhood modifications: “For sure, I’m not jumping over gates or crawling through headlocks any more like I used to!” DeHaan says her mother will watch Kinleigh more as she gets bigger. 

    “It’s been really fun as she’s getting older and watching her interact with the cows and try to feed them. To see the farm and the world through a child’s eye is really neat — the wonder of a cow, it brings it all back.”

  • For farmer Larry Stap, family-owned and -operated is about the cows, the cream and the conviction of his faith

    For farmer Larry Stap, family-owned and -operated is about the cows, the cream and the conviction of his faith

    This story was written as part of an agriculture-reporting internship with the the journalism department of Western Washington University and Whatcom County Dairy Women, supported by a grant from the Dairy Farmers of Washington.

    Wearing a red button-up shirt that matches the color of the barn his great-grandfather built, Larry Stap sits on the bed of his Mazda pickup. He might have to favor a hip that’s scheduled for replacement surgery in a couple of weeks, but his smile is as sweet as his family dairy’s chocolate milk. With fans from the Canadian border to Portland, Oregon, and plans to expand into eastern Washington, Larry Stap is a fourth-generation dairy farmer and owner at Twin Brook Creamery in Lynden, Washington. Counting his kids and grandkids, three generations now live on the farm.

    Year farm started: 1910

    Acreage: The farm includes 230 acres plus 50 acres rented from neighbors.

    Facilities: The dairy farm and bottling plant are on separate sites, three miles apart. 

    Herd: All Jersey, 265 milking and dry cows and another 220 youngstock. 

    Cream of the crop: Twin Brook Creamery produces whole, 2 percent, 1 percent and fat-free milk; heavy whipping cream; half-and-half; strawberry and chocolate milk; and eggnog seasonally, all sold in glass bottles.

    4,000 – 7,000: Number of glass milk bottles Twin Brook Creamery washes in a day.  

    Customers can return their bottles at the store where they purchased the milk and get their bottle deposit back.

    Self-sufficient: “We grow most of our own feed. When you have enough land base, you can raise all your own feed. So that works out really nice.”

    ‘Lots of history here’: The oldest barn on the farm was built by Stap’s great-grandfather in 1911.  

    Family first: In 2006 Stap’s daughter and son-in-law Michelle and Mark Tolsma asked to join the family business. “Instead of getting bigger and adding more cows, we diversified and started bottling our own milk.” 

    ‘Responsibility’: The main skill Stap says his father taught him. “Those cows need to be milked seven days a week, the calves need care seven days a week. You can’t just think about tomorrow, you have to think about long term.”

    ‘Always, always, always’: “Probably the biggest thing is to worship the Creator. Our mission statement is, We are a family-owned and -operated dairy that exists to glorify God, through the stewardship of the land and the animals that He’s entrusted to our care in the best way possible.”

    Tech support: Twin Brook Creamery installed four Lely robotic milking machines around 2016.

    Milking times: Cows are milked three to six times a day, depending on the cow’s daily production. Each cow produces about 55 pounds, or nearly 6 gallons of milk, a day.

    Six: Approximate number of minutes it takes for the robot to milk each cow. 

    Snack time: Cows eagerly line up to be milked by the Lely robotic milker because they get a special high-energy snack. Cows enjoy the treat so much they sometimes “cheat” and try to go through the milking line extra times. The robot tracks their computer tags and shoos them off if they’re not due to be milked.    

    Toughest part of farming: “It’s seven days a week. You won’t get days off, you probably won’t get vacations, you still have to milk the cows when you’re sick, so be ready for some serious commitment.”

    ‘It all boils down to stewardship’: “If you don’t take care of the soil properly, you’re probably not going to have good quality feed. If you don’t take care of the animals that provide your living, they’re not going to produce well.” 

    Learning curve: “You can take some college classes, you can go to ag colleges and they’ll help you a lot. But you’re never going to get the learning that you have working on an actual farm. Just learn, learn, learn, because you’re never going to learn it all. It’s just amazing what you can take through life with you.”

  • ‘Grandpa’s Guernseys’: Dairy family’s roots run deep in Whatcom County

    ‘Grandpa’s Guernseys’: Dairy family’s roots run deep in Whatcom County

    Name: Leon Zweegman

    Farm: Rozelyn Farm, Lynden, Wash.

    Acres: 200 

    Herd: 150 milking cows plus 150 youngstock, about two-thirds Holstein, one-third Guernseys. 

    Roots: “My grandfather and the whole Zweegman family came from Nebraska in 1901 and all settled north of Lynden. We’ve been there ever since.”

    Education: Dairy-science degree from Washington State University.

    All’s fair: The Zweegman family has shown Guernseys at the Northwest Washington Fair since the 1940s. 

    Rise and shine: 4:40 a.m.

    “I have a long day”: “We do most of the work ourselves with one or two employees. I hit the barn at 5. My milker’s usually there then. I feed, scrape alleys, take care of heifers and calves. It’s usually 10:30 to 11 when we have breakfast and then the rest of the day can be any number of things: moving animals, haying or silage, repairs, maybe a chance to run to town for parts. We milk again at 4 in the afternoon. We’re usually done by 8. Irrigation happens whenever that has to be done, so it’s regularly 10 o’clock when I get in for supper at night.”

    A fine line: Some of Zweegman’s cows are direct descendants of his grandfather’s herd. “The first Guernseys came onto our farm in 1917. I have 20, 21, 22nd generation from those very first two cows still in the herd today, the 20th generation from the first two Guernseys Grandpa got.”

     “Still having fun”: Zweegman loves farming because “I’m my own boss. I get to see every sunrise every morning.” 

    Food for thought: It takes two years til a heifer produces milk. Zweegman explains a cow is inseminated at 15 months old, then gives birth nine months later. You don’t have milk production until after two years of feeding and raising her. In effect, a dairy farmer has two herds: “dry” cows and milking cows.

    On the frontier: “You’ve got to get smart about a whole lot of things. People don’t realize how many things we have to be specialists in. Machinery to repair, an electrician, a veterinarian, your day runs into all these. You never know what’s going to pop up: ‘Oh, that’s what I’m doing today.’”  

    Plowing on: “The toughest part is it’s 24/7, 365. We don’t have weekends off like nine-to-fivers do.”

    How farming’s changed: “You have more machinery and the machinery’s gotten a whole lot bigger since I was a kid. What we used to take two weeks to do we do in a day now. Like silage. I can remember when I was a kid it was maybe eight to 10 loads of silage a day and it took a couple of weeks. We can fill a whole silo in a day now, 40-50 loads.”

    Advice for future farmers: “You’ve got to be willing to work hard. You’ve got to love it. Otherwise forget it. It doesn’t cut you any slack.”

    “Guernseys have been my life”: “We’ve developed a lot of bulls that are used nationally and internationally. Almost every Guernsey herd I’ve been to in the five countries where I’ve traveled had blood from our herd. I’ve been in some herds in England that had 30 to 40 animals traced to our bloodlines.”

    Global impact: “If it was purely for milking cows I don’t know if I’d still be doing it. But I just got back from 24 days in Europe with the World Guernsey Conference.” Zweegman and his wife, Lorraine, have “done that five times over the last 12 years, gone to South Africa, Australia, England, Guernsey, eastern Canada. That makes it enjoyable. We’ve got so many great friends around the world.”

    Dairyman Leon Zweegman tells of raising Guernseys and Holsteins on the Lynden, Washington, farm where his family has lived since 1901. 

    Produced by Sarah Sakurazawa / Blue Ribbon Stories

    Music by Jan Peters of Bellingham, Washington