By DOUG SCHMITZ
Iowa Correspondent

CALMAR, Iowa — When Kelli Boylen became the new director of the North-east Iowa Community-Based Dairy Foundation at Northeast Iowa Com-munity College (NICC) in March, she had no idea her job would eventually bring her back to her southern Wisconsin dairy roots.
“I grew up on a 50-cow dairy, so the fact that I am involved with two dairy operations (a free stall set-up and a grazing farm) thrills me,” said Boylen, who was involved in FFA, 4-H, served as county dairy royalty and has lived with her husband and their two children in northeastern Iowa for 10 years.
In fact, while Boylen was honing her skills as an editor and reporter in previous newspaper positions, she was preparing for her new role at the Calmar-based foundation, which specifically supports what has been called the only uniquely high-tech dairy education program in the nation.
“Journalists have to be well-rounded and know a little bit about everything, and they have to be good at multi-tasking – two skills that are essential to what I am doing now,” said Boylen, who graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville with a bachelor’s degree in speech communication, and an emphasis in public relations and journalism.
What’s more, Boylen’s journalism experience has proven invaluable for public relations and fundraising, two of the main job duties she said she’s now performing in her new position, which became effective March 25.
Established in 2000, the grassroots-organized dairy foundation partnered with Iowa State University (ISU) and NICC to develop a strategic plan for the region’s success.
The collaborative effort resulted in the Dairy Center, a $4.2 million facility located south of Calmar on Highway 150, which is used for dairy education, applied research, advocacy and demonstrations, improving the lives of more than 2,000 dairy farmers and thousands of urban consumers in the 17-county area of northeastern Iowa, Boylen said.
At 16,000 square feet, the Dairy Center includes a milking herd of about 200 cows, a milking parlor with a herringbone system on one side and a parallel system on the other, a free stall barn with a scraper system and pits with slats, a new calf barn, a special needs barn with veterinary and lab facilities and 245 acres for forage and pasture research.
Complementing the Dairy Center is the Grazing Center, which opened in 2005. It features a parlor constructed in the old tie-stall barn, and demonstrates rotational grazing, pasture and forage management and herd management with about 80 cows.
“The Grazing Center, with its low-cost parlor setup (installed in our old tie-stall barn) and a compost bedded pack barn, offers students a great example of a way to start dairy farming without having to take on a lot of debt,” she said.
“We love the fact that we can help students to learn more than one way to dairy farm.”
With the two dairy operations contributing more than $1.35 million annually to the local economy, foundation President Jed Becker said of Boylen, “We are very fortunate to have someone of her knowledge and talent to be part of our team.”
According to the University of Wisconsin Department of Agriculture and Applied Economics, since the Dairy Center’s opening eight years ago, approximately 95 of NICC alumni now own, operate or manage many successful dairy farms, milking roughly 12,730 cows, with each generating about $16,000 in economic activity each year.
“The 213,000 cows in Iowa have an economic impact of $3.4 billion annually,” Boylen said. “Our graduates are generating $203,680,000 in economic activity each year, much of which is in northeast Iowa.”
In fact, nearly 80 percent of NICC Dairy Science program alumni hope to operate their own farms someday, Boylen added.
“Our project is to connect those beginners with an experienced dairy farmer and to help them develop a mutually agreeable, and beneficial, relationship,” she said.
“We can help arrange assistance and resources to help the beginner and the experienced farmers plan for the eventual turnover of the farm, and most importantly, we can help to secure significant financial benefit for the established farmer.”
But once a dairy farm stops being active, Boylen said, it rarely returns to operation.
“The goal of this program is to keep farms going by matching those wanting to exit dairy farming with those who want to enter the industry,” she said.
To date, foundation projects for which funds are being gathered include the Beginning Farmer Project, the Dry Cow Research Barn, Operation Cattle Drive II and the Iowa Dairy Story and Museum, all of which Boylen said bodes well for Iowa’s dairy future.
“The dairy industry will grow in Iowa,” she said.
“We have the inherent advantages of infrastructure, availability of water, fertility of soils, ability to inexpensively grow high quality forages locally, the work ethic of youth and the relative affordability of land.
“We believe Iowa and Upper Midwest (are) going to be a boom area for dairy once again.”