Fresh Curd Friday - meet tanner

Another Fresh Curd Friday is here and this week we’re introducing you to Tanner Walleser. Tanner is the oldest of Tom Walleser son’s and helps run all the day to day operations at Walleser Farms. He has been farming since he could crawl (maybe even earlier than that) and only took a short break to head to Iowa State University to get a degree in Business. Tanner spends most of his time on the farm milking, feeding cows and doing fieldwork.

A normal day for Tanner starts at 5AM. The first task of the day is heading to the barn for to milk the cows. Morning milking and clean up takes around three hours. After everyone is milked and the parlor is clean, it's time to take care of the rest of the days chores.

Daily chores for Tanner means spending time cleaning up after the cows, scraping out the barns, and filling the stalls with sand when needed. He also helps feeds the cows most days and works on the rest of the days to-do list. Late afternoon you’ll find him in the milk parlor again, milking the cows for the second time. During the spring, summer and fall, fieldwork takes up the majority of the day. Spring planting starts in April, usually the first hay crop is ready by end of May and continues through the rest of the summer. Around September it’s time to start harvesting corn.

Tanner also helps out with the 400 head beef herd. From January to April their cows are calving, keeping him busy checking on calving moms and making sure everyone is healthy. The last few years they have spent the months of February and March planning for their Freeburg Ridge Angus bull sale. This year, you can check that out the first weekend in April.

On Fresh Curd Friday’s, Tanner delivers cheese curds and product on our Lansing/Wisconsin route. You’ll also find him helping with some of WW Homestead Dairy’s yearly events – St. Patrick’s Day and the Corn Days Car Show.

His favorite farming jobs include baling & merging hay. Farming is a full time job, but when he has time you can find him enjoying a blue smoothie, shed hunting, on the Mississippi river or hunting. Tanner’s favorite WW Homestead Dairy product is vanilla ice cream.