Christian Family Farm Has Grown Over the Past 107 Years

The Christian Family Farm started in 1919, with the third, fourth and fifth generations currently working on the farm.
The Christian Hill Dairy was formed in December 2005, and Dale and Mary Christian run the Dairy with their sons Patrick, Curt, Chris and Bob.
The farm has grown from milking cows in a 60-stanchion barn to milking over 3,500 cows three times a day in the milking parlor, with mostly Holsteins, some Jersey and Brown Swiss making up the herd, with around 35 employees helping to run the farm operation.
The Christians are primarily a dairy farm with their milk going into cheese, and they grow the majority of their forages on their 4,000 acres, but they also contract some silage from area farmers (King Farms, Adelmeyer Farms, Jim Serwe, Jake Hall, Joe Nied, Mike Brummond and Terry “Babe” Brummond).

“Our farm had to adapt to the new norm of efficiency, so we had to apply technology to get us there through the parlor and using GPS in planting and harvesting of the crops,” said Curt Christian. “We are working with a company called LF Bioenergy to produce gas out of the manure our cows produce.”
“In our area, agriculture is very important. The area has experienced some changes with the addition of solar panels,” said Christian. “I’m against them in productive ground, but unfortunately money is a big factor.”
“One factor we as a family had to consider growing was the fact we had some land that would be up for sale across the fenceline,” said Christian. “At the current scale we were at, we couldn’t justify buying land, especially at the current value.”
“So we had to decide to grow years ago to get us financially sound to purchase the land; otherwise, there would be solar panels south of Lomira as there are north of Lomira and now the hot topic is data centers, if not more solar, so hopefully the area farmers can prevent that from occurring in our area,” said Christian.
“The area will always have farms to what extent I don’t know,” said Christian. “Over the years, a lot of guys decided to no longer milk cows and cash-cropped or decided to rent their ground out to no fault of their own because farming is very hard but also rewarding.”
That is the life question, honestly; guys got out of dairy because of the 24/7 grind because reliable and good help is hard to find, especially for the smaller dairy,” said Christian. “I have been there; we milked till 8 every night and it was hard to get away on vacations.”
Christian’s mentors were his grandparents, Grandpa Harley Christian and Grandma June Christian.
“As a kid, it was amazing having your grandparents living next to you and unfortunately we took it for granted,” said Christian. “Growing up, I would always knock on grandma’s door and get the paper, look at the sports section and see how the Brewers did the night before while devouring Grandma’s cherry soup.”
“Maybe I didn’t learn much about farming in the sense of Xs and Os, but it was more farming is a lifestyle and you have to make sacrifices to be successful,” said Christian
“There is something to be said when you plant a crop in April/May and come October you have a bountiful harvest… now yes some years is less then other and some are more then others but God has a big hand in that… yes we can take the credit for planting the seed but after that it is out of control and if a person thinks otherwise they are just fooling themselves,” said Christian.
The family dairy farm has created the ability for Christians to provide for their families.
“Some years the paychecks might be on the light side, but there was always and will always be food on the table,” said Christian. “It has created an understanding in our children where their food comes from and the sacrifice it takes to get.”
“My takeaway. In any story, there will be a lot of details one misses, but I get to see my kids be busy around the farm,” said Christian. “They are driving mules, skid loaders and tractors now. They might not farm, but they will have an understanding, and that, my friend, is a fulfilled life.”
“Because the legacy isn’t what I do; my legacy is my kids, and we farm the way we do not to say we are big, but it’s a quality-of-life reason,” said Christian. “I want to see my kids’ sporting events; I want to take them on vacations and see their smiles.”
Feel free to reach out to me at bpriesgen@mmclocal.com if you have a farm you would like to be featured in our newspaper.