Wis. (WLAX/WEUX) – Many say farmers are the small-town heroes that keep our communities moving forward. In our series Harvesting Heroes, we celebrate agriculture workers, whose hard work and innovation make a difference. Today, we take you to an area dairy farm that’s been in the same family for over a century.

Rob Grover has the story.

Hi, I’m Rob Grover. Today, we visit Blue View Dairy, a farm that’s been in the same family for over one hundred years. A family that loves what they do and has a passion for producing a high-quality product.

“I’m Joe Welscher from blue view dairy. I’m an owner, partner, with my two brothers, Jim and Jay. We have 270 milk cows, milk about 240 twice a day. And we raise all our own heifers, grow out all our steers. We crop 300 acres of corn. Have about 250 acres of hay and 50 acres of new seeding. Were a 3rd generation farm and the 4th generation is working on the farm right now,” said Joe Welscher

“Yeah, growing up on a farm is really neat. There’s always something to do when you’re a kid. There’s a lot to play around with, it’s like having your own petting zoo essentially. Lots of animals to be around, just a lot of fun,” said Kyle Welscher.

“It’s still a lot of work but I can say a lot of things have made things easier. Not that the works went away, because it seems like there’s more to do now, just cause there’s more animals and things. But things like as far as equipment goes are nicer. The milking facility is way nicer. It’s definitely changed and grown.”

Joe Welscher said, “Oh yeah, my mom and dad taught us well. They uh… yeah, my dad passed away last July. And I mean he worked every day until he couldn’t anymore and that was about 6 months before he passed away. You know how it is, it’s hard for farmers to retire. And he helped us a lot, and my mom too. We learned a lot from them.

Kyle Welscher said, “I think people keep working on the farm so long just because they love it. Once you do it, and if you really love it, it’s hard to not want to do it. Yeah, it’s a lot of hard work but there’s a lot of satisfaction too.”

“I see a lot of the farms, and they got to hire a lot of help. That is getting tougher and tougher for the dairy farmers. So, we’re pretty fortunate that we can have just family farming here,” said Joe Welscher.

“I think family farms do a really good job of bringing a quality product to the consumer. I’d like people to know that farmers work very hard to give them a good quality product and that’s something that is very nutritious for them. And it’s important to know that the animals are well taken care of where your food is coming from and we do our best to do a good job,” said Kyle Welscher.

Joe Welscher said, “Oh, I’m hoping the next generation takes over, and then I’m sure they’ll be a little higher-tech than I am, then we are, me and my brothers, so that’d be good.”