Clinton Farms installs 50-stall milking parlor

A longtime family farm will host an open house Saturday to showcase their new, state-of-the-art milking system. The Waikato 50-stall Centrus Composite Rotary Milking Parlor was recently installed at Clinton Farms, located at E8351 State Highway 22, just south of Clintonville.

The new parlor includes a viewing area, so visitors can see where the Clintons’ 500 cows will be milked three times per day. The cows, however, will not be in the parlor during the open house, which runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Jim Clinton, who runs the family operation with his wife, Sue, their children, Brad Clinton and Carrie Griepentrog, and a grandson, Payton Griepentrog, said the new parlor can milk 250 or more cows per hour.

When asked why he would install costly new equipment in an era when dairy prices have been low, Jim Clinton said: “That’s farming. If you wait until the prices come back up, you’ve probably waited too long.

“We were milking in the flat tie stall barn with a double six parlor that we planned would last 10 years. Twenty-one years later, it was still there. The equipment was wearing out, and we had to do something if we wanted to pass it on to the next generation.”

Under their old milking system, cows are being milked 18 hours out of a day. When the new parlor is fully operational, the Clintons expect that time will drop to about five or six hours. Their milk is shipped to Saputo at Black Creek.

Clinton said they toured several dairy operations before deciding on the Waikato parlor, which is made in New Zealand.

“The rotary parlor is computerized,” Sue Clinton said.

Her husband admitted that initially, they weren’t comfortable with the high tech system, but their kids are. The technology will allow Jim and Sue Clinton to continue to take a worry-free vacation from the farm every year.

“Everyone knows their job,” Jim Clinton said.

Jim Clinton has a long history of farming, which started with his parents, Joe and Dorothy Clinton, when they began farming on rented acreage in 1952. They bought a small farm near Berlin in 1955 and operated there for 11 years, before moving to the current location. Sue Clinton, a graduate of Shawano High School, joined the farm family when she and Jim were married 44 years ago.

He said he is grateful to earlier generations for their strong work ethic. His dad, in addition to farming, had a trucking business and once hauled furniture for a year to help make ends meet.

“The grandparents lived with us my whole life,” Jim Clinton said. “If it wasn’t for grandparents and parents, I could never have had this. I never punched a clock.”

The operation now includes 1,900 acres that the Clintons own, plus an additional 600 or so acres that they rent. Like other farmers in the area, they are anxiously awaiting dry weather. So far, they have about 100 acres of peas and oats planted, but no corn or soybeans. They say the alfalfa crop was heavily damaged by the winter weather.

The milking parlor project, which started in late August, has also been delayed due to poor weather. A 10 million gallon manure pit is not yet completed, but the work will begin as soon as weather allows. The necessary permits have been obtained.

The Clintons also have a long history of inviting guests to the farm, which was the site of the 50th anniversary Wisconsin Farm Technology Days in 2003. Joe and Dorothy Clinton hosted the event, formerly known as Wisconsin Farm Progress Days, 25 years earlier.

They are a close-knit and active family, on and off the farm. Carrie Griepentrog, a St. Norbert College graduate with a bachelor’s degree in business, is also the clerk for the Town of Bear Creek. The Clintons are also members of the Bear Creek Lions Club, and Jim is a Bear Creek town supervisor.