Growing up with a long line of strong women, Jessica Pralle-Trimner does not back down from hard work and wholeheartedly believes women play an integral role on dairy farms across the U.S. The Wisconsin dairy farmer notes that many young dairy females grew up working alongside their fathers on the farm, but right beside them, have always been the mothers, who generally were the family caretakers, but also helped with calves, breeding charts, financials, and other important areas of the dairy. Pralle-Trimner’s childhood dairy farm was no exception.
“We expanded my family’s dairy operation when I was young and I got to see both my parents persevere through a lot of different challenges and learn from each other,” she says. “My parents both came from strong farm families and were always out in the barn and just constantly working together.”
As a sixth-generation family dairy farm, Pralle-Trimner shares that her great-grandmother managed the cows at the dairy and did all the breeding, feeding and milking.
“My great grandpa oversaw the crops,” she says, sharing that she is very proud of her roots and says that she went to school with a lot of women who are now back running a dairy or working as manager on their home dairy or another dairy. “Strong females are all around us.”
Today, Pralle-Trimner, and her husband, David Trimner, along with Andy and Jenny Miller, own and operate Miltrim Farms in central Wisconsin, home to 3,200 cows and 5,500 acres.
Female Force
Miltrim Farms has 50 full-time employees to help care for all the crops and livestock, with 30 of them working on the dairy side and more than half of their employees being female.
“Many of them are in managerial roles,” Pralle-Trimner says. “For example, the manager of our robot barn is a woman.”
With more females stepping up in roles all over agriculture, Pralle-Trimner says that the women she works with are humble, hard-working and play a lot of roles on her farm.
“They’re nurturing and thorough, they see the little things that make a big difference,” she says.
Miltrim Farms
The Miltrim Farms cows are milked one of two ways - 1,400 cows are milked in a double-24 herringbone parlor and 1,800 are milked by one of 30 robots. The decision to go robotic was led by Pralle-Trimner’s husband, David, who conducted a lot of research and truly is a numbers guy.
“He loves to see, collect and analyze data,” Pralle-Trimner shares, noting that when they began adding robots in 2020, there was big uncertainty circling around labor.
Keeping an eye on sustainability, especially with water conservation, also made a robotic facility attractive for those in charge at Miltrim Farms.
“Our family is very conscious of conservation of our land and water resources,” Pralle-Trimner says. “To do so we monitor all the moving parts in-and-out of the dairy. This helps us make calculated decisions when looking at new improvements and reviewing previous ones all across the dairy.”
The Milk Haus
Despite being in a rural area, Miltrim is noticing a growing disconnect in the consumer’s perception of ag. With their farm only located a mile and a half outside of town, they are conscious that trucks – whether that is milk trucks or manure tankers – are passing through.
“We want to provide a positive image of dairy to our community,” Pralle-Trimner says, noting the need to share their dairy story with others, despite living in North Central Wisconsin, the No. 1 dairy cow area in Wisconsin.
With a sincere passion for sharing their dairy story with others, Miltrim created a space that allows for business and education, called the Milk Haus.
“Milk Haus was brought into the equation after we completed the robot facility to extend the conversations around cows and technology. This space allows our neighbors as well as others to enjoy watching cows just be cows,” she says, noting that they have an event center that the public can rent out. The future potential of what this space looks like is endless.
Natural Role Model
When consumers visit Miltrim Farms, they’re not only able to see that the cows are well cared for, but also see a lot of females working together and a farm that has leaned into adopting technology to help care for their cattle.
Pralle-Trimner shares that she grew up going to board meetings with her mom, and she said that most times she was the only woman at the table.
“Farming has always been a partnership whether husband and wife, or father and daughter. All-important conversations were had as a family team, most may have been had around the dinner table. However, women have always had a voice and an impact and as our industry has evolved, we see more females leading fearlessly in their local communities, and on board of directors,” she says.
Pralle-Trimner oversees everything that has either two or four legs, meaning all the cows and employees. She says many of her roles growing up on her family’s dairy farm and being involved with sports, along with Junior Holstein Association, 4-H and FFA, not only played important roles for her, but also gave her the opportunity to learn how to speak up and get involved.
“Most of my day is really just engaging with employees and figuring out how I can help them with their job,” she shares, stating that she feels fortunate to have grown up with so many mentors and she wants to provide mentorship to her employees, too.
“Our employees are kind of like calves, they are the future of our farm, so it’s important for us to cultivate a positive work environment,” she says. “I like to tell our employees they are superheroes providing food for the 98% who don’t farm.”
