Dan Wiese is a second-generation partner at Wiese Brother Farms. They are uniquely stationed to transport, feed, and sell various food production byproducts from facilities in the greater Fox Valley region.
At Wiese Brothers Farms in Greenleaf, Wisconsin, they are always looking for opportunities to implement diverse products to feed their dairy cattle.
Dan compares the herd to the residents of a town or village. Each one needs to be fed and their waste needs to be managed. At Wiese Brothers, they aim to feed their herd in an efficient, cost-effective way and handle their manure to be good stewards of the community and environment around them.
Cows are indirectly helping to reduce methane emissions through consumption of edible food waste.
Truckloads of product will be rejected from processing plants for a myriad of reasons. Wiese’s are located about 25 miles south of Green Bay, putting them in an ideal location to accept these products.
The dairy cow is a wonderful recycler. She is able to turn those food byproducts into delicious, nutritious dairy products.
The base ingredients of the cow’s diet are still corn silage and haylage and remain consistent day to day. Fruity Pebbles, granola, cranberry hulls and candy are a few examples of products that have been worked into the ration at Wiese Brothers.
When it comes to sustainability, every farm is different. Wiese Brothers have found an economic and environmental benefit in implementing byproducts in their dairy herd ration.