Todd Tuls talks to employee Jesus Dominguez at Butler County Dairy in Read Township, Neb. Fifty people work on the farm that houses 6,000 cows. Tuls wants to build a farm east of Janesville where he would milk 5,200 cows.

Photo By: Cat Szalkowski-Patneau

Barns similar to these are proposed for a 160-acre site on Highway 14 just west of the Walworth County line. Only the nearest half of each barn is visible. The other half of each is bent over the horizon. The facility also includes waste storage and feed storage. The building at the far left side of the photo is where workers load manure solids on to trucks for field application.

Photo By: Cat Szalkowski-Patneau

This is one quarter of a freestall barn at Butler County Dairy. the farm has six barns, each holding about 1,000 cows. Cows are lined up at the feeding trough. Behind the cows are rows of sand-bedded freestalls. Computers regulate the temperature and humidity in the building by running fans and raising or lowering curtains on the sides of the barn.

Photo By: Cat Szalkowski-Patneau

Todd Tuls checks his mail in the office of Butler County Dairy in Read Township, Neb. Tuls built the facility in 2008 after building Double Dutch Dairy in Shelby, Neb., in 2000. Tuls proposes to build Rock Prairie Dairy in Rock County’s Bradford Township next spring.

Photo By: Cat Szalkowski-Patneau

Downtown Shelby, Neb., is brightly lit on an evening in October. The village is home to 690 residents. It is the largest community within about 15 miles of Double Dutch Dairy and Butler County Dairy in Nebraska. The next largest is David City, population 2,500. The two dairies are home to 10,000 cows.

Photo By: Cat Szalkowski-Patneau

This field at the northeastern corner of Scharine Road and Highway 11/14 east of Janesville is the proposed site for a new dairy farm that would house 5,200 cows on 160 acres.

Photo By: Bill Olmsted

A center-pivot sprayer applies wastewater to corn stubble on a field in eastern Nebraska. This application method is not unheard of in Wisconsin, although it is not as common as it is in Western states. Nebraska farmer Todd Tuls is proposing a similar system to empty manure water from lagoons at a facility eight miles east of Janesville on Highway 14.

Photo By: Cat Szalkowski-Patneau

The sun rises over a manure-settling lagoon on Butler County Dairy in eastern Nebraska. Workers use water to flush waste out of the barns and milking parlors. The water flows through underground pipes and into the lagoon. Some of the solid particles settle to the bottom as the water moves through the lagoon system.

Photo By: Cat Szalkowski-Patneau

Semitrailer tanker trucks collect milk during a morning milking shift at Butler County Dairy in eastern Nebraska. The cows on this farm and Double Dutch Dairy produce 15 semi loads of milk every day.

Photo By: Cat Szalkowski-Patneau

Workers milk 6,000 cows three times a day at Butler County Dairy. This milking parlor holds two rows of 45 stalls. A second parlor is adjacent to the first. From a holding area beyond the parlor, cows file into the stanchions above the heads of the workers. When they’re done, the cows file as a group back to their pens. It takes 45 minutes to move a group of more than 300 cows from the pen to the parlor and back.

Photo By: Cat Szalkowski-Patneau

Trinity Tuls, 8, spends time after school in her dad’s office in Read Township, Neb. Tuls built Butler County Dairy, including this office, in 2008. Next year, he wants to build a farm for 5,200 cows in Bradford Township east of Janesville. His oldest child, 18-year-old T.J. Tuls, plans to move to Wisconsin to manage the operation.

Photo By: Cat Szalkowski-Patneau

Photo By: Cat Szalkowski-Patneau

Photo By: Cat Szalkowski-Patneau

Photo By: Cat Szalkowski-Patneau

Photo By: Cat Szalkowski-Patneau

Photo By: Cat Szalkowski-Patneau

Photo By: Cat Szalkowski-Patneau

Photo By: Cat Szalkowski-Patneau

Photo By: Cat Szalkowski-Patneau