Trautman Family Farm

My friend Pete Hardin, who is editor/writer/passion behind The Milkweed, called me yesterday morning, to tell me "some things", but especially about an ad he placed for me in his latest issue of the Milkweed, which I just got yesterday. So here's the ad:

WANTED: Single-Axle, Bulk Milk Truck

A Wisconsin dairy producer, Scott Trautman, wants to purchase a used, single-axle, bulk milk truck in good running condition. The truck must meet applicable Grade A sanitary codes.

Surely, somewhere in some milk hauler's shed or back lot, there's an old-timer from the 1960's, 1970s or 1980s that deserves a new life patrolling "America's Dairyland"

Mr Trautman farms near Stoughton, Wisconsin (close to Madison). His number is 608-206-9798.

Scott & Julie Trautman are in a battle vs. Wisconsin's agriculture department over sales of raw milk 'pet food'. Buying a small bulk pickup truck would allow them to better line up a plant to process their milk, which is currently being dumped.

 Thank you so much Pete! For all you do. And thanks for the idea for today's blog entry -- I would like that someone out there that has one of these to understand just what we would do with that truck.

Realistically: Would like 2 -- a backup. But you'll see why.

I've contacted others that had some kind of resource like this, and they have always been too busy, into their own thing to consider any kind of sharing. Okay, fine. Welcome to the world of 2009.

Except I refuse to give into that. IF I were to acquire this milk truck -- I would find a way to share it with other dairy producers, and present and future dairy processors, to stimulate creativity and competition out on the farm.

What we have today: a limited number of really big trucks going by our dairy farms. Our case: One, that's it -- a 2nd? To the same place that has already said because of raw milk -- Dean Foods -- Foremost Farms -- not interested in us -- us uppity farmers (take note, farmers, take note).

There is a lot of interest in this consolidation in milk processors -- The Milkweed hammers on it each issue -- and I for my part, in my own small way, want to DO something to stimulate competition.

I am also going to talk (again) to Darlington Dairy Supply as well -- and anyone that will listen -- DBIC guys: I laid this same whole thing out for you and you completely ignored me. Sorry gang, but you are useless, you have no vision beyond your own job preservation, and that is really sad. You ought to be ashamed but don't even have it in you for that.

Darlington Dairy Supply sells and installs dairy processing equipment. Particularly on a small scale. There are pieces missing from the puzzle -- and some amount of scale is it. As I laid out so clearly to DBIC -- and was ignored -- it is a small market for farm-based artisan cheesemaking/dairy processing. It makes very little sense in an already busy day, and by people that are really good at MAKING milk, it is rare that they are also good at business AND making stuff WITH milk.

The answer -- the vision -- is:

1. Get the transportation thing worked out. Reasonable transportation, LIKE a single axle milk truck: I have talked further about an even more economical 'milk mover' -- which our Food Safety people like to say "NO! What was the question again?" -- you've heard me talk about that -- how destructive they are to entrepreneurial dairy endeavor (how many jobs and farms they are really costing us every day)  - that would bring 'special' milk into a regional location, economically, sensibly, safely.

2. Be able to test this 'regional location' with Darlington Dairy Supply's "Cheese on Wheels" -- a semi trailer with any kind of dairy processing built in, that is 'pre-inspected': it can be pulled into an area, and within 3 days be operational-making product. What's missing? The milk. Enough to keep it busy and paying for itself; from more than one farm. Back to the milk truck idea. The one farm one cheese on wheels? Too expensive. Not selling any. Could say -- 4-5 farms come together -- then it is really economical. What a great use for grant money even.

Hub and spoke -- at the hub this test facility -- test in a region -- what can we do here -- bring the milk in, make it into something great, market it. Goes well?

3. Build a permanent dairy processing facility -- move the mobile unit to the next location -- repeat.

What our farm has been all about: Quietly succeeding in our concepts here, until such point as the neighbors, other dairymen -- cannot help but notice how happy we are, how great our farm looks, how wonderful our animals are, and the raves about our milk: and then they get around to asking, "WHY are you so happy? WHAT are you doing?". And they really listen for a change -- really listen. And then what -- "how can I do this too?". Why, I would be thrilled beyond all imagination to tell you.

Because our dreams here are NOT about ME, our farm, it is a dream of farmers coming together in the real spirit of cooperation -- of community -- that we once had -- and were somehow talked out of -- imagine how it could grow -- first one farm, then a 2nd, then 5 -- our little area here to get a reputation once again -- "wow, those guys down by Stoughton -- they really know how to dairy -- the community supports them, they support each other -- let's see what they're doing...."

BEYOND the individual farm: NOT really an efficient unit of dairy entrepreneurialism. It has to START there -- but it becomes a force when several farms come together, bringing their talents and varied resources together. No, NOT back to the olden days: But take the best of the olden days, and combine with the best of technology and today. Like our farm.

This is NOT a new idea from me: I have been screaming this with all my might -- to DBIC -- to anyone that would listen -- it can work -- and now is the time.

So back to this single axle milk truck: It starts there. Why? Because it allows Scott to get back to work -- get our milk off our farm, even as it doesn't make great sense in the long term -- it does as a test pilot -- as a pump priming -- for bigger things. A something rather than a nothing. To get a busy guy like Bob Wills to listen, take notice. Want to participate.

You there -- bulk truck owner -- old-timer as Pete puts it -- dairy -- family dairy farms are not dead, they are alive -- and we have this opportunity to be a part of the New Golden Age of Dairy -- and you can be right here in the lore of it -- the place it started, with one Single Axle Bulk Milk Truck.

What would that be worth to you? To Wisconsin dairy? To all of Wisconsin? The world? We'd all like to know.

Scott Trautman, Proud Wisconsin Dairyman and Citizen

PS: The page that the milk truck picture came from DeLaval: pretty cool

I am a guy. And guys, it seems, like history. It's a generalization of course, but I'm sure The History Channel could show its demographics. Now, guys, has this necessarily made us any smarter? Well, maybe not. But boy can we be fascinated in front of a good war documentary. Lift your glasses, guys, booyah!

The thing is, though -- if you're a history major, and wondering exactly what you're purpose in life is -- what job there is for you -- is to learn from history; to not make the same mistakes. In the understanding of the good of the past -- and the stuff we read so much more about -- the bad -- what can we learn from it and apply to today. I would humbly submit we do far more enjoying of history than learning from it.

Steve Ingham (head of Food Safety, DATCP) has what will prove to be this raw milk movements favorite quote of all time. Sorry Steve, but there just isn't a way to do this without it looking this...not good way. We are very appreciative you made it -- and you believe it. Unfortunately, I could spend literally hours talking about just this statement, in about 20 different ways.

I was sitting down yesterday with one of my favorite people in the whole world. I hope you'll look back at my earlier postings -- before this raw milk war heated up -- and see a posting about Richard. He's a bachelor farmer, he's in his sixties, he never milked more than about a dozen cows, he's done quite well in time, but even he would admit he's an anachronism in today's world. And he wouldn't use a big word like anachronism, either. He'd say it so everyone understood it.

Please honor Richard and read my posting about him; I won't give all the details here, only what I feel is important to this story. I love Richard, we've gotten to be good friends, and I respect him so much. He loved -- and loves -- his cows. God's work yet again that I found him; well before we were really interested in dairy, I had a compulsion from an ad in the paper, I had to call him. Anyway -- he ended up selling us many of his cows. He desired to stay in contact -- I was all for that -- and because of that, we've learned so much from Richard, that is now incorporated into how we dairy. And too, Richard has learned from us.

Richard is the everyman farmer: The quiet, the hardworking -- the kind of people that when the government says this, he does this. If the vet says that, he does that. Like so many people have always done. It takes a lot for him to get upset, and he like so many tend to their own business most of all.

Richard came out yesterday and we were sitting around the table, and as we do a lot, I asked Richard about the past. It came around to why -- why 50 years ago did we come to these pasteurization laws -- did it really make sense then? We often have to ask ourselves what was going on -- what was the context then. When Steve Ingham says "there have been pasteurization laws on the books for 50 years, there are reasons for that" -- he wants you to stop right there. But me -- I want to know. I hope you want to know.

Back in the late 50's -- he told me they had one of these home pasteurizers. Everyone did. They were told they needed them. Here are dairy farmers -- being told to pasteurize their own milk. In his case, they did -- everyman does what they are told, even when there is this nagging lack of congruity. They'd been drinking raw milk from the tank all their lives. No problems there, now they come along and say heat it up before you drink it, well, as Steve Ingham puts it, there must be reasons for that. So they did -- and yuck, the milk tasted terrible. Yet they did it -- until the thing's heating element burned out, and it went in the junk heap, and they went back to drinking from the bulk tank -- out of convenience rather than thinking too much about it.

That left me thinking about just why -- what was going on then -- what was the context - that this was such a perfect solution, to what problem?

First, whoever was selling those home pasteurizers -- what a modern marvel that was -- you know how that's going to go, right? You NEED this, not, you MIGHT need this, and wow what a way to sell something -- you could DIE if you DON'T. Don't ask whether this applies to you, that's a real small market -- EVERYONE needs ONE. Think of THAT market.

That's only a really small part of it though. A sidenote, that adds some color.

Those of you that were adults during the post WW2 period. The new age of technology -- think of the flying cars, the space travel -- how technology was going to solve all our problems, we dreamed big dreams and it was going to be a wonderful future. And -- better living through chemistry, right? Every problem had a technological solution; every life inconvenience could be solved with a gadget, or a product or process. Efficiency, streamline -- progress.

All the chemicals - plastics - came into society -- marketing really took off -- TV -- this was some golden age -- no problem was beyond being solved. Yet as a counterpoint -- Sputnik -- the Red Menace -- The Iron Curtain -- The Korean War -- The Bomb - this huge fear -- things we could not understand and we needed to make sense of them. Fear of things we could not see -- germs. Wow did science tackle every problem. And we did "solve" those immediate problems -- with chemistry -- with products -- in our naivete thinking there wouldn't be long term side effects. It fixed the problem now -- in our arrogance and pride -- we -- man -- are so smart, we have solved the world's issues, and did it make for a great economy.

Everyday people -- living in fear -- bomb shelters -- communists around every corner -- McCarthy -- and fear from germs -- what would they do to us? We can't even see them. Science was catching on -- but so much scary stuff we could only imagine.

So take us back to the farm -- what was happening there in the late 50's -- the same things. Technology, industrialization, growth -- yet we saw problems along the way -- things we couldn't quite grasp in the larger picture of things, but boy did we have easy solutions for the now. Greater rates of mastitis? Antibiotics. How could that be bad? In the milk? That's probably a good thing for everyone! And then we get to pasteurization: what a simple solution, it seemed to take care of EVERYTHING, no matter how terrible the problem -- it solved it all. Did it? No more than anything else, but as we moved forward -- pasteurization wasn't high on the list. We had so many more pressing -- more obvious problems that needed to be revisited. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, looking at our chemical use. But we never did get back around to pasteurization, to look really closely at what long term societal effects it had on us. Homogenization -- what a nifty technological solution for the housewife for her family, right? No shaking up the milk. Safety -- this is safe milk here, it's been pasteurized. Every responsible mother wants safety, right? Pasteurized, homogenized for your protection. Sells a lot of milk -- and fit right in with the industrialized model.

Along the way -- it became yet another good way to keep farmers in their place. You need us dairy processors -- look here what good has been done, you're not against safe milk now are you?

We can get really wound up in conspiracy; and not as though there aren't, but I try not to give into it. By what understanding of culture -- of history -- can we come to some sense as to why things are as they are today. Pasteurization seemed to work. No one was all that interested in looking at it any other way, it sure didn't seem to be a high priority problem -- so we didn't. And it worked well for those that were in the business to market products -- but ultimately against people that aren't about marketing products, farmers.

Our everyman -- our everyfarmer here -- Richard -- did not stop pasteurizing his own milk because he researched the issue, he did because his pasteurizer broke. Neither he or any other everyfarmers questioned much further, they had work to do, and they trusted the government -- the university -- to tell them what to do, and they did it, even though it ultimately has meant for their destruction and the benefit to others.

Here we are in 2009: and I can guarantee you a Steve Ingham has gone out of his way not to learn the truth, and how many he hurts in his ignorance -- willful as it is  -- how sad it is-- but know the truth will out  -- and we will look back at this time and wonder why did we listen to people like him when he made so little sense. It will be obvious when we are in the future looking at the past.

You cannot tell me that nature got it wrong. That only man can fix nature's imperfection? That kind of arrogance has brought us to the very edge of destruction of the entire planet. This is but one small example. Let's fix the problem, not solve the symptom. WHY does ALL milk need to be pasteurized? It doesn't. But if milk does need to be pasteurized -- you'd think an otherwise smart guy like Steve Ingham would have the courage and thought of his fellow man at heart to go find out why. Sadly, he won't, and more farms will be exterminated for his ignorance.

As always -- forever -- Proud Dairyman from Wisconsin, Scott Trautman

I am so proud of everyone that showed up yesterday at the DATCP board meeting. That took their time -- felt so passionate -- spoke from every possible place in society -- that raw milk is here, we're not going away, and that we need to be heard -- and respected.

Yesterday was Veteran's day. We honor those who's sacrifice is complete: with their lives - for our freedom. We honor them, and ourselves in our pursuit of what is right and good for all. To root out tyranny -- expose those that would hide in the shadows and do evil -- to the weak of all shapes and sizes. That is what we did yesterday -- is spoke of the tyranny at Food Safety -- what they are doing to the weak -- the family dairy farmer in Wisconsin.

We spoke eloquently, we spoke honestly, we gave a complete picture, and I am proud, too -- to say -- that the board members listened and asked good questions. Clearly they care, and we saw an important part of democracy -- and good common sense -- in action. What they will do -- what message they will send Rod Nuelstein - and Food Safety -- we await.

But know with every day our numbers grow; our strength, our confidence, our organization, our ability to talk to real people -- people that wouldn't know raw milk from raw fish -- will know of this war against freedom: our ability to choose for ourselves wholesome food, and of the terrible war that Food Safety has had on our very pride as Wisconsinites--in the form of the weak - the vulnerable -- our family farms and especially our family dairy farms.

I am no Martin Luther King. But I am inspired by him. His love, his wisdom -- his struggles -- his sacrifice - and I take to heart his words. No, like our veterans -- we cannot compare ourselves to the struggles of black people -- they are not (yet) literally killing us -- but there are parallels nonetheless.

The struggles to organize -- to take sensible people treated so poorly as we have been -- and for us to rise above and be sensible, rather than angry and hateful as they are. The struggles in balancing all the ideas that come about, and focusing our energies efficiently -- speak in a unified voice -- make them feel the love we have -- this makes us so very very powerful -- and such a threat to their tyranny.

I dream of the day where farmers everywhere will come together and speak with a unified voice. That we are important. We can get along. We will not stand to be treated badly, we will not be picked off one at a time -- we will not be cannibals to one another, picking on our own weak -- but we will stand strong, we will take back the countryside and we will show the world that we can feed them -- with pride -- forever, to everyone's benefit, and not a few. Farmers will be seen as the heroes -- and not some lower class of people. We will be judged by the content of our character and not by the ...what? How vulnerable we are? How easy it is to destroy us?

There are so many important issues we face today. What I find so ironic -- so telling -- is how many of them come back to peace on our farms, our ability to produce food -- what could be more important -- responsibly, and what that truly means to us. In our health, in our environment -- to our freedom --

Why here? Why now? Why Raw Milk for this battle? Because it is a place to start, a battle that can be won, to start turning back the tide against all of us -- a small battle to most -- but a battle we will win. And then the next, and the next, and the next - for the love of the world we make for our children, and theirs and theirs.

I can only imagine the love that Dr. Martin Luther King had, but I am able to better imagine it every day; as I see the people around me, how they act in love, and not hatred, I am humbled, I am grateful, I am more filled with love -- and how those aligned against us hate these kinds of words -- love, respect, honor, pride -- they don't understand them -- they understand only power, and fear -- terror -- manipulation -- and money and now. How they will wail and grind their teeth against us -- lie, cheat, steal -- who knows how far they will go. And we respond with love. With sense. In unity of purpose, refusing to give into anger and hatred no matter how tempting it is, and it is so tempting -- it is there within us calling.

"It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important. - Dr. Martin Luther King

No, we cannot compare ourselves to the struggles of black people -- but family farmers have become the underclass -- we can be inspired - and in their own way -- through the lynching - the death of our farms - the terror they have systematically designed for our destruction - Food Safety - Rod Nuelstein and DATCP -- we must push on, we must gain our freedom -- gain our footing -- we must have a good Raw Milk Law NOW in the state of Wisconsin.

in love, and respect

Scott Trautman, Proud Dairyman and Citizen of Wisconsin

I am in a state of wonderment. I wonder, I appreciate, I am grateful. This great plan for me -- for us -- all of us -- that I am part of, I wonder why it has to be like this, but accept and know it IS for a reason, and it is not that I am to be miserable, but that I am to search for the meaning, while finally accepting that I may not find it, but search I must. It is the journey, not the destination.

This has been quite a journey, here. And it is really only now that I feel I am coming to some peace and truth; but that every step of this journey has been absolutely necessary; every moment of my life has brought me here. As I write -- it is not my ego, me - that writes, but in humility God moves my hand when it is given over to love.

My neighbors Dale & Sandy don't like me much at all. And that's truly sad, because we're not so very different. We would share some core values -- if only we could get to them. And I say: I am to blame that we aren't there, talking.

I remember meeting Dale, before we ever moved into this house. I hired him -- he is an ex-farmer--now a plumber -- to put in a water line for our refrigerator. I can see now -- here's this guy from somewhere else, coming in here, to our neighborhood, boy is he going to set the world on fire, boy is he full of himself. And he'd be right about that. Past tense, I'd like to think, but right. Dale didn't say a whole lot then, and he hasn't said a whole lot this whole time. It's not his way.

I have had some pretty unkind thoughts about him along the way. But those reflect more on me, than him. In my frustration with ME - I lash out in anger at HIM, but it is ME that now accepts responsibility for how the conversations have gone.

I have tried to be conciliatory. I have tried to talk, to get to know them, to express what we're trying to do in a respectful way. Yes, I do believe we have some really good ideas here that are working. No, I do not think I'm perfect nor do I have all the answers. But I sure am doing my best and I have not nor ever will give up on the idea of the family farm, where they have as so many others.

There have been moments where I did feel we were really talking. Sandy is, herself, and has a certain way about her that isn't as inviting. I have accepted that it isn't me, it's the way she is, get beyond it. There were these two times -- after a couple beers -- where those defenses were down, and we talked, and she asked questions about -- what to her -- seemed to not make a lot of sense. We had a dialog going. But then it ended. And maybe me joking that a couple beers is what it took ended it. Whatever it takes -- I've wanted to talk and find our common ground.

As time has gone on, I have come to very much balance anything I ever say with a complete picture. I know in my heart Sandy and Dale are good people: Look at their wonderful children. Look and see their son works with the father, you cannot be an ogre and do that. I know they love their land, farmers, I know they are good people and loyal friends, and I know if we really sat down and talked, that Dale would know I too am a decent person.

But I feel like the situation is such that he and Sandy have to hold onto this nugget of darkness, really hard, cannot let it go, and that it is beyond just these interactions we've had; it's about more, it's about the past -- and a proud family that wanted a different future -- wanted to farm -- and saw it torn from them back in the early 80's. And I can only imagine how they -- and others like them -- ex-farmers, how hard that is to say -- can really feel.

To see us come in -- never having farmed before -- tra-la-la, boy do we have all the answers -- throw a bunch of money at it, do this, do that they don't understand, completely out of the mainstream of what they knew, how irritating. Most of all -- the pinnacle of that irritation -- that we really seem happy, we seem to have that thing that we're all going for -- happiness -- we are truly and profoundly happy in our work, and what we're doing IS working, that somehow an ex-farmer cannot accept their own past failure in farming with someone in the present succeeding, especially when it is as different from what they did as what we do.

Howard & Carmen - getting up there in years, I've tried to get to know you, too, and there have been times where we too -- I thought we were really talking, then to know, nope, we're not. Nothing has changed. To talk to others, well, that IS just them, that's the way they are -- and to understand that a big part of them died with the death of their son -- the dream of a legacy -- a feeding of a despair, a wound that keeps getting picked open.

Here is this brash upstart -- not from the farm, not from here -- telling me what? Just in the way you say it -- resist, reject. So yes, it is me that has failed. What I would say to you Howard and Carmen, is listen - I know what pain you have in your heart, that there is a healing -- maybe some here, in knowing you are an important part of a legacy -- it couldn't be your own son, but it can be in my sons -- and daughter -- that we truly love farming -- we can do this -- we can reignite the flame there once was, here -- in this neighborhood -- it was good - it can be good -- and can you please open your heart and listen, and be a part of this beautiful hopeful future, that this isn't some Scott Trautman hero thing, look at him see how great he thinks he is -- but that this is about all of us -- you - me - us - finding it in our hearts to think differently -- think in the now -- and know that these are things we can do, there is a legacy --- family farms are not dead -- just changed, different. All that has happened to this point happened for a reason -- as terrible as some of those things have been -- good is possible.

I have a dream. And that is that this neighborhood becomes the starting place -- for a new golden age of dairy farming in Wisconsin. My friend Cheyenne Christiansen -- I want him here on your old farm -- he is a better dairyman than I will ever be -- and then it will not just be one farm but two -- and then three -- and then -- what? A culture change. We make very special milk -- 100% grass -- our cows are so very healthy -- come see them, please, see with your eyes, feel with your heart -- know I'm not sure this will all work out but it is possible, and has never been more possible than now with the people that have come together: all because of everything that has happened to this point. To you. To me. To us. There is no judgment, no I'm right you're wrong -- there just is what we can do that works in the now that will carry us successfully into a brighter future.

Dale & Sandy: I am sorry I have conducted myself in a way that has repelled you. We need you, we can't do this without you. Please talk to us.

Howard & Carmen: Please forgive me for my foolishness, please open up your hearts to what truly can be. Let us share our joy in life with you-- please -- we have so much to share, but you have to let us in.

If we are to fail, it will be my failure, and my failure to communicate in love. If all of us -- all of us - are to succeed, it will be the love that we find in each other, in our children, in their future, replacing what a cynical world would have us be. The future starts today - let us go to work -- the very hard work that it is -- and do it with joyful hearts. What a wonderful journey it will be.

In love,

Scott Trautman: Proud Dairyman of Wisconsin -- all of Wisconsin

Well this is certainly long overdue.

But isn't that just that way -- those that do the most, that hold it all together -- that do the real work of -- everything -- don't get the credit they deserve. The accolades, the attention -- goes to knuckleheads like me -- the ones out talking.

But who milks the cows when I'm on the phone now almost every moment of every day? Who fills the meat orders for customers? Who feeds the kids and makes sure the homework gets done? Who makes sure the calves have feed and pasture and are all looking good? Who makes sure Scott isn't being an ass?

My wife Julie of course. And every one of you needs to know that the source of any strength, anything I have that is good -- comes from her quiet strength. We are Team Trautman: and although my role might be in the "vision" department, Julie is in "operations", and we all know "visions" without "operations" is "damn foolishness".

So let me tell you about Julie, and how very blessed I am that she would be here by my side to share this life.

Julie and I met -- at our 10 year high school reunion, in 1992. (you do the math) We  had gone to the same high school - even the same college, but had different paths. It shouldn't surprise anyone that I was more of the geeky sort. But she was always nice, and said hi, but we didn't talk -- until this reunion. Why there? God. That's why. But we had some sort of connection -- she was out in Seattle, me in Milwaukee at the time, and over the next year, we talked long distance, I visited her, she me -- and we decided to give this a shot. And of course that didn't mean me move there -- but her move here. And then within six months I made her move again, this time to Madison, to follow my career at the time.

We married in 1997, she was working -- supporting our household -- while I was building an Internet business. By 1998 our first son was born, Ian. In 2000 our second son, Quinn, was born, and in around that time we decided to start looking for a farm. Not to farm, but as a "guilded cage" - for me -- in my Internet work work it seemed I could not leave without some bizarre thing happening that only I could fix.

It took us quite a while -- and Julie was the organizer, she would have her stack of listings -- and we would drive on weekends to see farms. And eventually -- me having resisted this particular farm we are on - for 6 months -- but Julie refusing to take it out of the pile -- we looked in this north window into the house -- and we both knew this was it, this was our farm. We moved in on May 16th 2003. I know this because it was our first Stoughton Syttende Mai, our local celebration of our Norwegian heritage.

There was quite a bit of unhappiness from me from the Internet business; a lot of that weight born by Julie -- and my children. We farmed on a very small scale, learning so much, making small mistakes, learning what we liked and didn't. In 2003 our daughter, Lilly was born: the first to live all her life on the farm. And in 2004 I sold the Internet business, and we dedicated ourselves to farming 100%.

Every family eases into a comfort zone in their 'roles' - every family is different. And there has sure been discomfort in the settling into those roles, and they still change. They may be changing again soon, depending on how this whole raw milk situation works out. But throughout our history together -- Julie has stuck by my side, and been the yin to my yang, my muse. So much different than me -- not better, or worse, but different, and so full of love, and patience -- and humor. I can't forget her humor -- we laugh so much around here -- I am a total goofball -- but Julie is REALLY funny because it's not all the time -- it's a goofy look here, a silly comment there.

I am a dreamer. A "big ideas" person. Will it surprise anyone that not every idea I have is a nugget of gold? Perhaps another kind of nugget? If left to my own devices, I would follow some of these less than gold nuggets. But Julie -- has the critical role of sense-maker. Scott, we both know I'm going to end up DOING this, WHY should I agree to this? So then I think about it some more, and we argue about it -- and ultimately I do make a case or it gets dropped. We figure it out together.

This farm was my dream -- not Julie's -- and as I like to say - if I had sprung all this on her -- how life would be -- she'd have long since run far far away. But we took it slow -- proved it all to ourselves. Dairy is a great example: Scott: "Let's milk cows!". Julie: No!. Scott: C'mon, just one cow, I'll milk her, we'll drink the milk, it'll take 20 minutes a day (along with other details she would make me tell and prove). Okay -- 1 cow. And that worked. "How about 4 now?". Julie: No. Scott: Here's the plan....

So now today we milk 25 cows -- and like yesterday -- Julie milked 23 of them while I was on the phone to umpteen people, serving in my role -- that both Julie and I understand is necessary -- to win this war Food Safety and DATCP has on family farmers - she quietly, without (much) complaint, does her work and mine -- knowing that is how it has to be for now, yet again her quiet strength.

Okay men -- time to thank your wives. Maybe it is gems and jewels, or like Julie -- this year she asked for a single axle milk truck for her birthday - thinking family - to save our dairy. 2 years ago? It was Shem our beautiful Jersey bull. Yes, folks, I am a total clod of a husband and deserve a beating. But in the farm families I know -- this is common -- the strength of the whole family turns on the woman of the family - the men are all self-important, and we think we run the show, and we're all about this "vision" or whatever self important thing we think we are -- but it is our wives that have been throughout time -- been the strength, and what gives our farm its life - its personality - brings us our success -- and most importantly our happiness.

Thank you Julie, thank you to every farm mom - farm wife -- FARMER out there. Without you there is no life on the farm. God bless us all, and let's take that time to tell your wife just how very important and loved she is. And for criminy sakes, give her a day to herself every so often.

In love,

Scott Trautman - Proud Wisconsin Dairyman - Citizen -- and at least adequate husband and father.

Well now I've done it!

I spoke yesterday in front of an attentive and enthusiastic audience at the Dane County Farmers Market, and I dumped a symbolic amount of our precious, beautiful milk.

That milk that I dumped -- could be the most valuable milk ever not drank, not made into a dairy product, ever in Wisconsin. If it leads to a good raw milk bill in Wisconsin, that will save family farms. If it causes people to think -- especially those that do not know about -- or even do not desire raw milk -- to consider that this is about people's ability to decide for themselves, and saving family farms.

My good friend came up to me afterwords and asked, so where did that come from? (my speech)

My simple answer: From my heart. No memorization, no cue cards. I have been building to that moment all my life, and as I have changed and grown, so my words come together and touch people, with their truth, with their sincerity.

I am the guy Food Safety really needs to silence -- to shut down -- to exterminate -- because I do talk sense. I am no reactionary, I am not thinking of only myself, I have done my best to think of us all in this: That we need our family dairy farms desperately - and here is this thing we can do, safely, now, to save them. That I am the guy that perhaps can bridge the gap -- even the gap with the powerful milk processors -- and make even them see we need our family dairy farms -- we need incentive to keep them here, and happy, and productive -- and that us having this small thing we can do -- is not a threat to them or anyone else. In fact, in time, we will all come to see what a beautiful thing this can be.

My oldest son ran the camera for me; and I wanted him there to see just what his dad was about. What he was capable of. Think of the lessons he took from that. Stand up for what's right. Have courage in life. Be willing to take risks, and most of all, be true to yourself. All this I do? I do for him, not me. For all our children of a future world of our creation - that we can make better by acting in courage now.

Gary Hebl: I am disappointed in you. I know you to be a better man and representative than the comments you made yesterday. Educate yourself. If you won't -- if you insist on your ignorant statement -- then how about you show courage -- and you go out to farms that you will be a part of destroying -- a dairy heritage we can ill afford to lose -- and you tell them -- I'm sorry -- but you have to go. You aren't good enough to produce healthy milk. Will you have that kind of courage, Gary? Have the courage of your convictions -- and educate yourself. I will hand deliver a very sensible book to you -- "The Raw Milk Revolution" by David Gumpert - and you have Food Safety hand deliver their FDA Slideshow showing what a scourge raw milk is as well. And then you decide based on facts and not politics.

I am drawn to know more about Fighting' Bob La Follette

And others who's convictions compelled them to acts of courage, even in the face of easier choices, that benefit ourselves in the now - but betray our future. Love your children - love your fellow man - love above all yourself -- and have the courage to build a better world, one small piece at a time.

The time for sensible raw milk is right now. We need leaders who understand the importance of family farmers to our future.

Who will answer that call?

In love and respect,

Scott Trautman: Proud Wisconsin Dairyman and Citizen

Anyone wonder what the heck I was saying yesterday? You know what, me too. This is all so complicated -- and it does involve way more than just the farm itself and its survival. How do I see and act in the many roles I serve in. Messy. Complicated. No simple life here I'm afraid. Onwards!

 I have had the great pleasure of speaking to David Gumpert. He is a thoughtful person -- well regarded everywhere -- and he has championed and documented our cause with great thoughtfulness.

Solutions to so many problems: EDUCATION. The more we really know -- and throw out reactionary, easy, simple things to think about -- the further we get in society as a whole, right? The world is coming around to all these big issues of sustainability, and it is through education. No, not simple. Messy. As clear as we want to think everything is: It isn't. I have been and continue to try, in my own life, and own message, to strike a balance. One that may end up getting me disliked by...everyone. But there's now -- and there's future -- there's what we can do now, where we can head in the future. EDUCATION, and getting people talking -- to each other -- thoughtfully -- bravely -- is going to be what makes the difference. Not screaming at each other or just meetings of like minds.

SO: I will state my case here now for a simple act of education on your part. Yes you -- dear reader -- you. Today. I do not want your money. Don't believe anything I say. I'd like you to get ahold of -- purchase, borrow, check out -- whatever  -- a book that looks at this RAW MILK situation, and I'd like you to make your own conclusions. It is important in the grand scheme of things.

The Raw Milk Revolution by David Gumpert

Easiest: Buy from Amazon or like. Today.

Better: March into your local bookstore, and ask for this book. No, don't go to the shelf, even if it is pasted to the forehead of the person there, ASK for it SPECIFICALLY. Should a dialog start; GREAT. See what starts here with that?

BEST: Buy that book locally -- read it -- educate yourself -- then pass it on to a friend, and tell them why this is important, and now. Make sure they read it -- and if they aren't starting it, get it back and pass it onto another. Repeat. Ask them what they think. That book sitting on a shelf is only so much potential energy. Make it the most read book.

INCREDIBLE: What if our legislators were each to have a copy of this book? Passed on -- personally -- from a constituent, along with a thoughtful letter. The time for that in Wisconsin is very very soon.

There is nothing simple about anything -- but there are aspects of this whole RAW MILK debate that are -- and can be simply put to at the least get people thinking. My version of that is this:

Milk from the cow: Are we sure nature got it wrong the first time? Maybe we humans got it wrong? That all milk is a biohazard to be fixed by humans makes no sense. Healthy cows, healthy farm, healthy milk.

We need your support of our farm -- we are sure in need -- but we need your help on getting RAW MILK LEGAL in WISCONSIN even more.

This quote -- think about it - and what is said about Raw Milk -- crazy stuff -- think about the bigger picture:

 "Every age, every generation has it's own built in assumptions - that the world is flat, the world is round. There are hundreds of hidden assumptions, things we take for granted that may or may not be true. In the vast majority of cases, these conceptions about reality -- which belong to the prevailing paradigm or worldview - aren't accurate. So if history is any guide, much that we take for granted about the world simply isn't true."

- John Hagelin, PHD, from the wonderful book & movie, "What the (bleep) do we know".

All in love,

Scott Trautman, proud Wisconsin Dairyman and citizen

I (Scott) ended up down at the Dane County Farmers Market after milking Saturday. As I like to say, it's one of those scary sounding things that are just well, obvious, and not scary. So: I was listening to the voices in my head, and doing what they tell me to. That's right. The internal dialog -- which is focused, now -- so intensely on this Raw Milk War -- War on Family Farmers -- war on the Trautmans --- is getting really, really creative -- and is really joyful, playful -- and full of energy to experiment.

 So when I say I'm acting on what the voices in my head are saying: They're coming from love, and enthusiasm, and good, and just bursting out all over the place.

I called our great friends -- my daughter's godfather -- the Andres, Bruce and Cindy, if they'd be up for a little bit of naughty fun down at the Dane County Farmers Market. Of course, when do you want us. That kind of people -- always -- we are the needy ones, the Andre's are there for us time after time.

So we go down, park just off West Wash. Bruce on Camera. Or Cindy. Doesn't matter. You got my back? Yeah. Alright then, let's do this thing.

I've got a gallon of my milk under my arm. Freshly poured from the bulk tank into a gallon jar. Having been from the cows I just finished milking an hour ago. (don't look at me like that when you figure that out to be milking at 10am. We milk once a day). And a glass.

 We get out of the car, walk across the street, walk 50 feet, and who do we run into -- a guy with a placard tied on front and back -- "RAW MILK INTERVIEWS HERE". Guy with a video camera, like us.

We both yell out and run and hug, just like that. People are definitely looking at us now -- so it's MAX KANE, another common criminal like ourselves, raw milk criminal -- and he came up with this idea on his own, so did I, Kosmic Karma with a Kapital K.

So the Raw Pack here starts wandering around, you know, bustin' heads an' stuff, gettin' all rowdy you know. Wait, that didn't happen, although Max  can sure express himself on his feelings about, well, people, organizations he, like us, are having a way rough time with.

THIS is a TEASER folks -- we have VIDEO -- with what I promise to be world premier of the most simple explanation of the  raw milk law in Wisconsin ever. You will be shocked; you will be amazed; laugh, cry, etc. etc. etc.

C'mon people -- reach out to us -- help us defend ourselves in this war that DATCP is waging on us -- bring in your friends -- tell them this is important, they need to know about this ---

 See you back here soon -- with video from my morning on the square!