 | | | Pagel's Ponderosa Dairy Farm Family (back row: Dustin, Kim, Jamie, Brex, Steve; middle row: J.J., Kiley, John, Bryan; front row: JayLyn, Braelyn, Brooke, Ashley; missing: Peyton, Jaxen). | Pagel's Ponderosa Dairy has an open-door policy and invites anyone to visit their dairy or go on a farm tour. They built a 60-seat conference center overlooking their 72-cow, carousel-style milking parlor. This and other developments are part of an initiative to make the dairy a regional destination, with the goal that the dairy will attract educational tours, other dairy farmers and the general public. Tours lasts approximately 45-60 minutes and are available by appointment. "We believe it's our responsibility to educate non-farm people about what's going on at the farm. Even though we own and operate a large dairy, it's also a three-generation family farm. We have four children, and all of them—including two of their spouses—play a key role in managing this modern, sustainable business." Located about five miles from Lake Michigan, the Pagel family places a strong emphasis on environmental stewardship by monitoring surface water and groundwater for sediments and nutrients. This practice helps maintain and improve water quality for rivers, lakes and wells. "We will always be careful to monitor the farm's byproducts in an effort to benefit the community and provide a safer environment. It is important that we are not contributing pollutants to our rivers, streams, lakes or groundwater." As part of their efforts to educate non-farm people, Pagels explain how they use one of livestock agriculture's most bountiful byproducts—manure. Once considered waste, Pagels turn nutrient-rich manure into several useful products: - They apply liquid manure to cropland as fertilizer, reducing the need for commercial fertilizers.
- Manure provides energy to operate their methane digester.
- The methane digester then generates enough electricity to power 800 local homes and their dairy.
- Area gardeners benefit from the resulting organic material that makes great fertilizer. The digester's heat kills the manure's weed seeds and bacteria.
- The leftover solids provide a soft and comfortable bedding for cattle.
Besides helping protect water resources and creating several useful byproducts, processing manure through the methane digester minimizes greenhouse gases, helps prevent objectionable odors and improves air quality by reducing volatile organic carbon emissions. In the digester, anaerobic microorganisms break down many odor-causing compounds in manure. This basically eliminates odor problems. Research has shown that anaerobic digestion reduces odor 97%, compared to fresh manure. It's hard to put a value on nearly eliminating odor. When we decided to house so many cows in one location, it was our responsibility to make sure we'd still be good neighbors. We have had no complaints from neighbors, and they love that we are making renewable energy." Learn about the environmental research done at Pagel's Ponderosa Dairy by the UW-Discovery Farms program.  Pagel's Ponderosa Dairy on Wisconsin Dairy News
Agri-tourism is growing in Wisconsin. After visiting Pagel's Ponderosa Dairy and speaking to Kim Selner, we found out how taking a tour of a dairy farm is helping one group of youngsters learn about Wisconsin’s $26.5 billion dairy industry. Wisconsin Dairy News, produced by the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, Inc. 2010
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