Danielle Kiefer determined to milk her own cows soon
Jean Caspers-Simmet
Date Modified: 01/04/2010 3:37 PM
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Agri News staff writer
WATERLOO, Iowa -- Danielle Kiefer is certain she wants to milk cows on her family's farm north of Waterloo.
Kiefer, a senior dairy science major at the University of MInnesota, has 14 heifers and cows. She keeps the heifers at her parents' farm until they start milking and then she finds homes for them with nearby herds.
Her brother, Dustin, and his fiance, Madison Nielsen, farm her family's ground and Dustin is in the process of buying the land. If Kiefer starts milking, she will buy feed from him.
Kiefer grew up on her parents, Nancy and Doug's Rockin-K Holstein farm north of Waterloo. They sold their herd in 1998 and keptjust a few animals for showing. She was 10.
"I'm always sad in September because that's when we sold our cows," Kiefer said.
She loves showing cattle. She was three the first time she went in the show ring.
She was a top student at Janesville High School and received a full scholarship to Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo. After two years, she transferred to the U of M.
She'll graduate this spring, and her plans are to work off the farm to make some money and then start milking in a year.
"I'll have to do some revamping," she said.
Kiefer and Nielsen are thinking of starting a day care on the farm for extra income. Nielson works at a day care center in Waverly, and Kiefer works part-time at her cousin's day care in the Twin Cities.
"Milking has been my dream since I was a sophomore in high school," Kiefer said.
She is involved with the Gopher Dairy Club. She interned at Hansen's Dairy at Hudson. She worked mostly as a milker but she also learned hoof trimming, cow breeding, rode on the milk delivery route, worked in the farm's retail store and helped with on-farm tours. She frequently returns home on weekends to help milk on the Hansen farm.
Kiefer enjoys writing and draws on her dairy interest fo topics. She was able to hone her skills in a creative writing class at Hawkeye Community College. Her favorite poem is "Awaiting the Arrival of a Christmas Miracle," which is about the birth of a calf on Christmas.
"The idea just popped in my head," she said. "My teacher loved it. I had it framed for both my grandmothers."
Another poem, "Ode to a Halter," was written about her favorite green halter. Her poem about the Waterloo's National Cattle Congress Fair is about how she'd like to see the fair return to some of its former glory as the nation's top dairy cattle show. Her father is president of the fair's dairy division, and she displays her cattle on the fair's Blue Ribbon Row.
"My goal is to have a show quality herd," she said.