What began with 80 cows in 1990 is now a 1,700-cow operation spanning 4,000 acres in Brillion, Wis. The high-quality rations and feeding strategies at Woldt Farms contribute to enviable components in their milk.
Now in its fifth generation, Woldt Farms has built a reputation for their high-quality forage. The family was recognized this year at the World Forage Analysis Superbowl, where it earned Grand Champion honors for mixed haylage.
Kelsey Woldt, HR manager, and Jeff Evenson, dairy manager detailed the farm’s goals, strategies and results over the years through a Dairy Forage Seminar during World Dairy Expo in October 2025.
“In 2020, we really hit the ground running with cover crops,” Woldt shares. “We had dabbled in it before, but 2019 was such a wet year that we knew something had to change. I would say 95% of our ground is now cover crop.”
Evenson and Woldt cite several benefits they’ve noticed from the cover crops, including manure management, nutrient preservation and feed for the heifers. Other forage strategies, such as using green chop and high oleic soybeans, are contributing to components and increasing feed efficiency.
The original goal with green chop was to cut ration costs and see how it impacted the cows.
After four years, Evenson shares: “Every time we start feeding the green chop, we lose about two pounds of dry matter intake per cow, but our components and production stay the same. So, the cows are eating less, but doing the same or better.”
Evenson cautions that for green chop to work well, it’s best if there’s a lot of land available. “That’s just so you can protect yourself against different growing conditions,” he says. “We have about 700 to 800 acres that are planted into a grass of some sort. If we can’t go into one field, we can go into another.”
In 2025, the farm added high oleic soybeans to the ration. Evenson says the goal here was to get away from the commercial fat they’d been feeding.
“We’re able to grow more of our own protein this way, and don’t have to go to the feed mill for it,” he says.
The green chop and high oleic soybeans each provide a five-tenths of a point gain in feed efficiency. Between the forage and genetic strategies, Woldt Farms maintains an average of 3.3% fat and 4.4% protein. An analysis done in collaboration with their nutritionist showed a savings of 70¢ to 80¢ per head compared to not feeding the oleic beans.
Thanks to EZfeed, the Woldts’ feeding strategy is also flexible and sustainable.
“We have it set up where we have two rations,” Evenson explains. “We have one with greenchop and one without, so if we get to a day where the chopper breaks or it’s raining and we can’t get out there, the feeder just goes in there and hits a button, and switches all rations over to no greenchop – and we just continue on.”
The forage strategy focuses on components because Woldt Farms’ milk goes to a cheese plant.
“In the last five to seven years, we’ve really tried to focus on making a high-fat, high-protein milk,” Evenson concludes. “The higher we can get our CFP overall, the better.”
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