HOST FARM
Thank you, Dornacker Prairie Acres, LLC for hosting the 2022 Breakfast on the Farm!
MEET THE HOST FAMILY
We are a 5th generation dairy farm. Allen and his wife Nancy farm with Allen’s parents Ralph and Arleen. Allen and Nancy have four children; Kate, Jack, Adam and Anna. Through the years additions and innovative improvements have been made to the farm.
1863 - John Dornacker(1st generation) came to America from Prussia and settled the family homestead in the Town of Addison and began farming and raising dairy cattle. He passed the farm to his son, Peter (2nd generation).
1952 - George Dornacker (3rd generation) built one of the first harvestore silos in the area
1962 - George built a pipeline milking setup
1973 - George and his wife Eleanor sold the farm to their sons Ralph and Leo. Ralph and Leo built a double 6 milking parlor in 1980 and increased their herd size to 80 holsteins.
1978 - Ralph and Leo (4th generation) build a slurrystone (manure storage) and drying bin
2000 - Leo retired and Allen (5th generation) purchased Leo’s half interest in the farm and formed Dornacker Prairie Acres LLC with his dad Ralph.
2004 - built a 58 X 100 heifer barn and increased the herd to 100 cows
2008 - built a solar calf barn and added on to the machine shop
2013 - purchased 192 acres from a neighboring farmer
2018 - a 70 x 440 (3) Lely A5 robotic milking facility was built along with a 3.5 million gallon manure pit
The three row 70 X 440 expandable freestall facility milks about 185 and houses prefresh cows. The old parlor milks the remainder and its barn holds heifers, youngstock and steers. At the present time Dornacker Prairie Acres LLC milks about 300 cows, owns 350 acres and rents an additional 650 acres. We store most of the cow feed in concrete bunkers and piles. We store our corn and soybeans in bins. They hold around 75,000 bushels. Silo harvesters are still used for stored heifer hay and straw. The feed bunkers are being expanded in spring 2022 to store all the feed; to eliminate making Ag Bag’s.
Half of the cows are a breed called Holsteins but we also have some Montbeliarde and Swedish Red breeds. We produce high quality milk that is shipped to Cedar Valley Cheese in Belgium Wisconsin. Our milk is made into that delicious Italian cheese.
We are also volunteers with our school, church, 4-H/FFA, ski and snowmobile clubs. Allen and Nancy have served on the Wisconsin Farm Bureau young farmer and agriculturist committee at the state level.