6-15-13 breakfast on the farm

The Fond du Lac Area Association of Commerce Agri-Business Council’s annual Breakfast on the Farm will be held on Sunday, June 23, 2013 from 8 a.m. – Noon.  This year’s event will be held at 3-D Dairy located near Mount Calvary (N8148 Schaefer Road, Malone WI).  The Diederichs families of 3-D Dairy invite you to join them in experiencing Wisconsin agriculture and celebrating June Dairy Month!   Breakfast will consist of eggs with ham and cheese, sausage, watermelon, donut holes, coffee and milk.  The cost is $6.00 in advance and $7.00 at the door; children under 5 are free. Culver’s custard sundaes will also be available for $1.00, with proceeds of the sale benefiting the Fond du Lac Agricultural Ambassador Program.  Tickets are available now at the Fond du Lac Area Association of Commerce or they can be purchased from any Agri-Business Council member.  3-D Dairy is owned by three brothers and their wives.  They include Joe Diederichs and his wife LuAnn, Bill Diederichs and his wife Julie and John Diederichs and his wife Linda.  The anticipated 4,000 people attending this event will also have a chance to meet the partners’ children.  Joe and LuAnn’s children include their son Kevin and his wife, Andrea and their daughter, Gracie; and daughter Amy and her husband Shaun Andrew and their son Camdin.  John and Linda’s children are Ashley, Brian, Emily and Nikita.  Brittany, Erin and Shannon are the daughters of Bill and Julie. The Diederichs brothers took a big step in 2000, when the families combined their three individual herds, moving the cattle to a new freestall barn and parlor facility.  The start-up operation housed 580 cows.  While calves were raised at the farm site, heifers were custom-raised by an outside grower.  A special needs barn was constructed in 2005, raising cow numbers to 800.  Changes in 2009 included adding another barn and switching the now 1,300 cows to sand bedding.  Eager to raise their own young stock, they built their first heifer barn in 2010 for animals up to 8 months of age.  Another building was built in 2012 for heifers and dry cows.