It’s #NationalEntrepreneurDay and we’re celebrating DFA farmer-owners like Stacy Rethman, who prove that dairy farming is more than just milking cows—it’s innovation, sustainability and small business pride. Stacy shared on her Instagram page yesterday: “It’s #NationalEntrepreneurDay tomorrow, and I’m always surprised how often dairy farmers are overlooked as entrepreneurs. My great-grandparents started Rottinghaus Holstein Farm in 1933 with only 5 cows, and through the years, we’ve continued to innovate, evolve, and grow our business. Often that means supporting other local entrepreneurs in our community, too! One example that I think is pretty cool? We partner with local cabinet maker Koch Cabinets to give their leftover sawdust a second life as bedding for our cows! A semi delivers fresh sawdust weekly, and we change their bedding one to two times a week (yes, more often than most of us change our bed sheets! 😅). And when the bedding gets dirty, we don’t toss it out. Instead, we spread it on our fields as a natural fertilizer for next season’s crops. As a fourth-generation dairy farm, we’re #DFAProud to be a small business and support other local entrepreneurs in our community. 🙌” From repurposing sawdust as bedding and natural fertilizer to championing other local businesses, Stacy’s entrepreneurial spirit shines bright. This is the heart of dairy farming—creativity, community, and a commitment to sustainability!
Your initiative is fantastic! We do something very similar in Brazil to produce our magnesium oxide, which is used in animal feed and as a buffering solution for dairy cows. We utilize cashew nut shells, which would otherwise be discarded, as bio energy in our kilns to produce MgO. It also helps support the local community. Keep up the great work!
Fantastic update
Love this
Congratulations!
🐄 Talk about milking every opportunity! Stacy’s turning sawdust into bedding, dirty bedding into fertilizer, and all of it into a masterclass on sustainability. Four generations of innovation and hustle? That’s not just farming—that’s legendairy entrepreneurship! 🐮🙌 #DFAProud #NationalEntrepreneurDay