Ripp family of Waunakee has hosted farm tours for kindergartners for over 20 years

WAUNAKEE ‒ For three days last week, Ripp's Dairy Valley was overrun with kindergarteners from three Waunakee schools. The tradition of showing the youngsters how a dairy farm works has been going since some of the Ripps' kids were in kindergarten. That was more than 20 years ago.

The tour started with a visit to the freestall barn where the just-fresh cows are housed. Chuck Ripp, one of the family partners on the farm, told them that "nothing is more important to baby calves than colostrum – the first milk that the cows give".

Some of the young visitors witnessed a calf being born or just having been born. They learned that these Holstein calves can weigh as much as 70 to 80 pounds at birth.

The kids also learned that on a hot day cows will drink 50 gallons of water.

“Cows have really long tongues,” Chuck Ripp told them, as he used a walkie-talkie to coordinate with other family members who were bringing tours through the farm’s buildings. “If you stand close enough to them they will lick your jacket.”

Farm tours enlighten visitors of all ages

The first barn the children visited was where cows are housed after calving and they get milked in a separate parlor from the farm’s main parlor until their milk is clear of antibiotics from their dry cow treatment. Some of the narratives from the farm’s partners was aimed at the younger set, while some were fashioned for the teachers and parents chaperoning the various groups.

Chuck explained during the tour that cows who have just had their first and second calves are kept separate from older cows. He also explained that “cows have their coat on all the time – they never get to take it off” so the barns have fans to keep the cows cool when the weather gets above 65 degrees.

Most of the herd is black-and-white so the kids asked Chuck why one cow was brown. He explained that she was a Red-and-White Holstein and was that color because of her genetics.

No one knows how the 20-year farm visit tradition started

These farm visits are at least a 20-year tradition – none of the Ripps were sure exactly when they got started. But they said when their kids moved on from that class, the teachers at the various elementary schools wouldn’t let them quit hosting the event. This year, students from Arboretum, St. Johns and Heritage Elementary schools in the village of Waunakee made the long anticipated trip.

When the event started the family cleaned up their shop and students brought their lunches to eat there. Now, Grande Cheese – the company which takes Ripp's Dairy Valley Milk by semi-load – provides workers to make pizzas for the young visitors.

This year's pizza specialists in the farm’s new shop were Randy Hardiman and Bill Mueller, who made hundreds of pizzas in four pizza ovens to feed the students, farm staff and numerous volunteers. “We want to show how good our cheese is on pizza,” Mueller said. Grande has been serving pizzas for the farm tour since 2006, the Ripps said.

With help from Ripp family members and volunteers, they served cheese, sausage and pepperoni pizza to the crowd in the spotlessly clean shop, where the kids could also see the large, new forage chopper that helps feed the Ripps’ cows.

 And there were ice cream sundaes to top off the visit – with many of Ripp Valley’s neighbors, relatives and friends helping to scoop the ice cream and hand out the toppings.

Eileen Ripp, part of the second generation of the farm, explained that they order coloring books and other goodies from the Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin, to send home with the students. “It also includes promotional things for adults to read,” she told us.

In the early years of these tours, they could ask how many of the kids were from a farm or had grandparents on the farm. “It was almost everyone,” she said. “Now it isn’t very many.

“We want to let people know where their food comes from,” Eileen said. “We might decide that this is the last year and then the teachers call and want to bring their kids, so we do it again.”

In all this year there were nearly 300 kids who were part of the visit.

Ripp's Dairy Valley welcomes fourth-generation family members into operation

Eileen’s sons Chuck, Gary and Troy are partners in Ripp's Dairy Valley, milking around 900 cows, and are the third generation of the operation. Their brother Craig gave up an off-farm job to come back and work on the farm, and has stayed, but didn’t want to be a partner.

There are fourth-generation farmers now too. Gary’s son Jacob is on the farm managing fieldwork, said Troy. Troy’s son Mason does maintenance on the farm and Chuck’s son Riley is involved in feeding cattle. Chuck’s daughter Kailyn is also part of the farm operation.

Gary explained that their grandfather Hardy bought the farm in the late 1940s and later, their father Roy and his brother Jerry were partners until Jerry moved up the road to start his own dairy operation, which continues to this day. He told us that Ripp’s Dairy Valley was one of the first farms to install a pipeline in the early 1950s.

When Roy and Jerry farmed, they had about 220 cows. In 1994, these Ripps built their first freestall barn and in 2000 built the main parlor and expanded to 500 cows. In 2001, they expanded to 750 cows and in 2008 built the herd up to 900 cows. At that time they also installed a sand separator because there was talk of a manure digester involving their farm and two neighbors.

“We knew we wanted to stay with sand bedding,” Gary said.

In 2010, the manure digester became a reality for the Ripps and two of their nearby neighbors. In 2006 they built a new calf barn where they raise all the baby calves and have graduation pens for post-weaned calves. When calves reach a certain point, they are transferred to cousin Keith Ripp’s farm, who raises the heifers until their ready return to Ripp's Dairy Valley. The two families work back and forth together on harvesting and manure hauling.

In 2015 they built the new shop that has been the headquarters for the kindergarteners’ lunch since that time.

Gary echoes his Mom’s thought, “When we grew up just about everyone was associated with a farm. During yesterday’s visit we had only three that were from a farm.” Still, with kids who have never been on a farm, it is fun, to introduce them to things they may not have ever seen, he added.

“We want to show them and tell them that we’re real people too and that we care about our animals – keeping them comfortable and healthy,” Gary said. “Plus it’s always fun to see the kids smile.”

Sharing agriculture's message is more and more important

The Ripps have been hosting these visits for so long that one teacher shared that she had visited the farm as a kid on one of her school’s trips to the farm.  

Troy, whose domain is the calf barn, noted that as the years go by he’s finding it more important to talk to the parents and teachers who are on the tour. He presides over one of the most popular tour stops of the day because he has ducks, chickens, bunnies and newborn calves in his barn. “These kids don’t usually get the chance to pet a baby calf or see ducks close up.”

But he likes to remind people that this is a dairy farm tour, not a place to pet kittens, even though he’s happy to provide that opportunity.