Photo by Frances Gunn on Unsplash

My Only Customer Called and Told Me 44% of My Product Died

In 2015 our oldest son needed chores. Since we live in the heart of Wisconsin farm country, we decided to start a small calf farm. We would buy baby Holstein calves from a nearby dairy, raise them 8 or 9 weeks, and sell them to farmers looking for started calves.

Cute baby calves, quality father-son time, and the potential for side income. What could go wrong?

We built a little heated milk-mixing house and put in a 60x60 gravel hutch pad and 8 calf hutches.

Small milk house, with calf hutches in the background

Before long, the first 8 calves arrived, and we were in business.

My two youngest sons looking at one of our first arrivals

From the start it seemed like a gig that would work for us. The entrepreneurial side of me figured if we had the infrastructure in place, why not expand? Within two months we added 8 more hutches. The next summer we added another shelter to bring our capacity up to 26.

The summer after that (2017), we went all-in and built a full-fledged calf barn with curtain-wall sides. This put our…