![\"Badger](\"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/images\/\/Badger-2-07-2014.jpg\")
<\/a>On July 24, about 30 participants attended the Badger NAMA Fond du Lac Farm Tour in eastern Wisconsin.\u00c2\u00a0 The day started at Vir-Clar Farm, where the Boyke family milks about 1,300 dairy cows and produces electricity via a methane digester.\u00c2\u00a0 Katie (Boyke) Grinstead said the family places immense focus on building good relationships with the local community and educating consumers about modern dairy farming.<\/p>\nAfter visiting these three diverse farms, attendees appreciated a better perspective of what it takes to produce and market quality dairy products.\u00c2\u00a0 One attendee commented, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153For those of us that don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get to a farm very often, it was a great opportunity to learn more about technology, operations <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The dairy industry drives the economy in America\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Dairyland, contributing more than $26 billion each year in economic activity and providing nearly 5 percent of Wisconsin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s jobs.\u00c2\u00a0 Wisconsin leads the nation in cheese production and wins more awards for its cheeses than any other state or nation.\u00c2\u00a0 Because dairy is so important to the state, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[280,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chapter-activities","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8561"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8631,"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8561\/revisions\/8631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>Next, the group headed just north of Fond du Lac to visit LaClare Farms, which is owned by Larry and Clara Hedrich.\u00c2\u00a0 The farm milks 375 dairy goats and produces national and international award-winning cheeses onsite.\u00c2\u00a0 In recent years, the Hedrichs added a retail store and restaurant to the farm so guests can \u00e2\u20ac\u0153follow their food\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from the milking parlor
\nto the locally sourced gourmet
\nmeals prepared at the restaurant.<\/p>\n<\/a>For a sweet end to the day, the group traveled to Kelley Country Creamery.\u00c2\u00a0 Karen and Tim Kelley milk 65 cows on their 200-acre farmstead. \u00c2\u00a0Karen always dreamed of opening her own ice cream parlor because the treat is enjoyed by all ages.\u00c2\u00a0 Today, the Kelley family greets thousands of guests daily as they choose from a long list of premium ice cream flavors.<\/p>\n
\nand the innovative spirit that is
\nkeeping the farming industry
\nalive and prosperous.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/a><\/p>\n