RIO, Wisconsin — Levzow Dairy Farm, one of the first dairy farms in North America to install robots for milking cows, is located at N5074 on quiet Highway 22 near Rio (RYE-oh), 30 miles north of Madison, the state capital. Wisconsin is called “America’s dairyland.”
There is no big signpost to inform passersby of the revolutionary farm. Besides the routine address on the road leading to the farm, the only thing that gives it the semblance of a farm are three of the farms five huge silos.
Until I was assigned to visit the farm as part of the four-month World Press Institute fellowship, which drew nine journalists from across the globe for an immersion into journalism in the United States, my knowledge of robotic milking was as dry as an arid desert.
My three days at the farm gave me a real picture of the influence of technology on agriculture, the oldest occupation in the world.
Ralph Levzow, his wife Becky and their two children, Amanda and Kennedy, had over-extended themselves over the years to keep their farm. They have 320 dairy cows, Red Rock Jerseys and Joyrama Holsteins.
Despite Levzow’s generous offers to attract young men in Columbia County to work on the farm, only one agreed to help him by working five days a week. It was inadequate for Levzow to expand the farm and fulfill his dream of owning a sprawling agricultural enterprise.
By Jale Dominic, WPI '02
Reporter Dominic Jale with three members of his WPI farm family in Rio, Wisconsin: Ralph and Becky Levzow and their daughter, Amanda.