Art Meinholz

Art Meinholz is carrying on his family’s participation on the Yahara Pride Farms board. His brother, Walter, was one of Yahara Pride Farms’s founders and served on the board until his passing in 2015.

Art says he appreciates Yahara Pride Farms because its members proactively address issues, such as doing what they can to reduce phosphorus runoff in the Yahara Watershed. With its many members and data-based results, Yahara Pride Farms also has clout, he says.

At Blue Star Dairy LLC near Middleton, Art operates the family farm with his wife, Lori; their son, Lee; and Art’s cousin, Ben Meinholz. They milk 650 cows and farm 1,130 acres, growing corn, soybeans, wheat, and alfalfa. At six months of age their Holstein calves are sent to a heifer-raising operation. The heifers return to Blue Star Dairy about 60 days before calving.

Until recently, Art and his family were in business with their extended family, which has farms in DeForest and Arlington. Art and his family primarily concentrated on the cattle while fieldwork was done by the DeForest agronomy team.

Art and his family are now doing tillage operations and hiring out the rest of their fieldwork. They’re growing 690 acres of corn and soybeans, 100 acres of wheat, and 340 acres of alfalfa. Last year was the first time they planted barley as a cover crop. Winter rye also has been used as a cover crop following silage harvest. The rye is fed to heifers and dry cows. The family uses cover crops as well as low-disturbance manure injection to reduce soil and nutrient runoff.

Blue Star Dairy also hauls manure to a nearby biogas plant, a partnership of EnTech Solutions, a division of Faith Technologies, Inc., and Northern Biogas. The plant includes a nutrient-concentration system that returns clean water to the Yahara Watershed and reduces phosphorus runoff. More than 27 million gallons of manure were processed by the biodigester in 2021.

The Meinholz family continues to implement conservation practices, including managing waterways on their land. They’ve seeded an oat and grass mix on the banks of a waterway to prevent soil and runoff. The oats mature quickly and provide root mass to hold excess moisture, Art says. Bales and filter socks also are used to protect the waterways running through the farm.