Courtesy Photo Dairy cattle are seen at Dave Tolan’s farm in Ossineke. Tolan explained that he managed to care for his cattle fine even during and after the ice storm last week.

ALPENA — Some of the hardest hit areas in Northeast Michigan from the recent ice storm were rural areas. These areas are where a majority of the local dairy farms are located.

Dave Tolan, a dairy farmer from Ossineke, explained that compared to other dairy farms, his farm managed pretty well throughout the storm and in the aftermath.

“We were extremely blessed … [there are people] experiencing a lot more issues than we are having,” Tolan said.

Tolan explained that the farm was without power for three days, but they have generators that kick on as soon as the power goes out. In addition to those generators, Tolan said that they have portable generators around the farm, as well.

As far as fuel, Tolan’s farm was equipped to withstand the fuel shortages since there was fuel stored on the farm. Tolan did say, however, that he had to run all the way to Tawas for fuel to run the house generators.

“Everything is back up and running as normal,” Tolan said. “There were other farms with major shipping issues…we didn’t have any of that.”

Tolan explained that shipping milk is a timely business because it cannot sit around for too long.

“There isn’t the option to leave [milk] for a few days…it has to go,” Tolan said.

Christopher Schalk’s farm, located in the Hilman area, experienced a few more challenges than Tolan’s farm.

Schalk explained that when the thunderstorms began the night of March 28, it took out their robotic milking system. Once that system was down, it took Schalk’s a day and a half to get it up and running again.

During that downtime, Schalk’s computer system was running off of internal memory. Schalk explained that once the system was back online, he found out that 18 cows had not been milked since before the computer malfunction.

Schalk said that because of this lapse in milking, some of those cows might produce the same amount of milk as they did before.

Like Tolan, Schalk has fuel storage on the farm. Schalk said they were fortunate enough to fill up their fuel reserves three weeks prior to the storm.

Schalk mentioned that falling trees weren’t a huge concern for the farm as their power lines run underground and they have all the equipment necessary to clean up any debris left from the storm.

Throughout his lifetime, Schalk can’t remember a time when he went more than 24 hours without power. Likewise, Tolan noted a storm several years ago where heavy, wet snow left them without power for only a few hours.

Neither farmer could remember a time when they experienced power outages for as long as they did after the recent ice storm.

Paul Werth, a dairy farmer located just outside of Alpena, said that he was blessed to not have anything major happen as a result of the storm.

Like Tolan and Schalk, Werth had a large supply of fuel on hand along with generators. Werth explained that due to the nature of milking and having to milk cattle at least twice a day, there is not an option for no power.

Werth said that he was very proud of his farmhands for working through the storm despite dealing with their own power outages and challenges.

“Everybody showed up and on time…I thank them all,” Werth said.

In the spirit of lending a helping hand, like so many community members, Werth offered for his farmhands to stay at the farm if they needed to.

Werth also offered to give them water and opened up his home to them, since many of them were without power and running water.

Additionally, Werth ran buckets of water down to a neighboring farm that was without power and had 30 beef cattle to care for.

Despite the challenges Tolan, Schalk, and Werth faced, all adapted like so many farmers do. And though the ice storm may have been unprecedented, many dairy farmers were well prepared to bear whatever Mother Nature threw at them.

Kayla Wikaryasz can be reached at 989-358-5688 or kwikaryasz@TheAlpenaNews.com.