Tim and Christa Bartel

Goshen County, Wyoming

These days, farmers have to be more mobile. So often there are cases of a farmer having to pick up and move to another state entirely because of development pressure, or high land prices that hinder a farmer from adding much-needed acreage. Trouble is, you can’t move a whole farm—equipment and cows—with a couple of U-hauls. Still, in 2001, Tim and Christa Bartel managed to move their whole operation from Wisconsin to southeastern Wyoming over the course of one summer AND work both farms in the meantime.

With a very tight schedule and superhuman effort from the whole family, Tim’s dad included, they managed to get both farms planted for the season, then harvested. Christa and the Bartel’s then 7-year old son, Garrett, moved to Wyoming in June and managed the irrigation pipe rotation all summer. In September, the “cows came home,” to Wyoming, and by November 13^th, the Bartels were milking their formerly Wisconsin cows on a dairy in Wyoming.

Sadly, the 300 acre home farm in Wisconsin that had been in the family for just shy of a century was sold. But, Tim points out, “There’s been some opportunities out here for us here that we might not have had back home.” Not the least of which is the over 6,500 acres the Bartels now call home.

They chose Wyoming for a number of reasons. “We definitely wanted to stay east of the Rockies,” Tim says. “Land prices in Colorado were out of our reach, so that pretty much left us on the Front Range. We both love the Rockies.” Christa was behind it all the way, Tim says. “I don’t think I would have made it without her.”

These days the cows are officially Wyoming stock. The Bartels milk about 180 Holstein and Jersey cows, and raise about 120 beef cattle, as well.

Tim and Christa had always dairied conventionally and were still conventional when they moved to Wyoming in 2001. But several things happened in 2004 that had them re-thinking their situation. The most horrific of these was Tim’s diagnosis of testicular cancer at age 36. Fortunately they got that whipped, and Tim’s been clean for 6 years. So the chemicals he’d been exposed to for years were worrisome. “When I was 18 and 19, I’d be doing the spraying and I didn’t think anything of blowing a clog out with my mouth. I’d see my son next to me doing the same things I did and I just didn’t want that for him. You always hope for something better for your kids.”

Also in 2004 they got a postcard from Organic Valley, looking for organic milk producers in the region. Additionally, the freight rates the Bartels paid to get their milk shipped to Denver jumped astronomically at a time when conventional milk prices were pretty low.

In typical Bartel fashion, the family moved into high gear (as if they had a low gear!) and decided to make some changes. It wasn’t easy. Tim says, “I thought that summer we made the move from Wisconsin to Wyoming was the hardest thing I’d ever done, but transitioning to organic was really tough for us, mostly because of the financial pain you go through during the process.”

“Some of our pasture and hay ground was able to be certified right away, but it wasn’t enough acreage to cover the whole operation. So we had to buy organic hay and grain for quite a while, while only getting conventional prices for what we grew in the meantime. I had to sell four loads of conventional corn to buy one load of organic corn. You feel like you’re doing everything wrong at first, that you’re failing.”

“It’s difficult, too, when you have something come up with your crops or your cows. With Organic Valley, we’re lucky to have access to staff veterinarians Dr. Detloff and Dr. Guy when we need advice on the cows, but when something goes wrong with the crops it’s really tough to find information on how to deal with certain pests and diseases organically.” Just this year, the Bartels had a bad outbreak of grasshoppers. “Everybody was out spraying for them but we couldn’t do that. When these things come up you need to make a decision now because those hoppers will have your crop eaten in a day or two. That lack of information can ruin an organic farmer.”

Tim says Organic Valley has been great helping them through the transition. “Their feed pool was a lifesaver, too. Christa was real supportive about the transition. She commented that if we hadn’t done it, we wouldn’t be dairying today. Plus, I think being organic has made me a better cow person. I’m a lot more watchful. I know I need to take care of a situation before it becomes a problem because I don’t have quick-fix crutches like I used to.”

It was May 2008 when the Bartels got on the truck with Organic Valley. “I’m enjoying it more and more. Growing up, everybody went away from grazing and toward confinement dairies. That knowledge of grazing was lost a generation before my dad. I feel like a city slicker when it comes to grazing, so I’ve been working on my pastures with a grazing specialist. Now I’m involved in a research project jointly sponsored by University of Wyoming, University of Idaho, Utah State University, and Colorado State University on grazing birdsfoot trefoil.”