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The
Nelsons are banking on the success of their agriculturally oriented
bed and breakfast.
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Don
& Anita Nelson
Neldell Farm /Thunder Valley Inn
Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin
Summary of Operation
160-cow dairy farm on 1,350 acres (900 owned, 450 rented)
Corn, soybeans, oats and alfalfa
Three organic vegetable gardens
Bed-and-breakfast operation linked to the farm
Problem Addressed
Public education. A former
schoolteacher, Anita Nelson realized that many children do not know
where their food comes from. “City kids used to go to the farm and
make that connection,” she says. “But grandma and grandpa aren’t
on the farm anymore, and we are losing so many family farmers.”
Nelson’s desire to expose city children to the origins of their food
prompted her to pursue a dream. “We’re in a tourist area where hundreds
and hundreds of families come to Wisconsin Dells to enjoy the beautiful
river and all of the attractions,” she says. “I thought some of these
families might like to learn about the land that grows their food. I’m
a believer that we must educate our neighbors, both rural and urban,
about how their food is grown, by whom and for what purpose.”
Background
Both Don and Anita Nelson
were raised on dairy farms outside of Wisconsin Dells. Don took over
the family farm, first purchased by his father in 1920, when he was
18.
Anita opened Thunder Valley Inn Bed and Breakfast in 1988 when her two
daughters, Kari and Sigrid, were still in high school. “We’re one of
the few bed and breakfasts that not only accepts children and families,
but encourages them to come,” Nelson says. “We have goats, chickens,
ducks, rabbits, kittens and other small livestock. The children have
so much fun feeding and playing with the animals.”
Thunder Valley Inn Bed and Breakfast sits on 25 acres about three miles
from the dairy farm and is a thriving side operation managed by Anita
Nelson. They acquired the property, formerly a horse ranch and riding
stable, shortly before opening the inn.
Focal Point of Operation
— Agritourism
The Nelsons’ dairy
operation extends over about five miles and incorporates six small farms.
They have 160 mature cows, and milk about 130 to 140 each day. They
raise about 165 heifers. The animals are housed in a combination of
a stanchion barn and a free-stall barn. Cows are all milked in the stanchion
barn in shifts. When outdoors, cattle are confined to a small field
with enough area for them to lie down at night and frequent a “day pasture”
that offers them exercise.
The couple is in the process of building a milking parlor. Once they
finish, they hope to improve their pastures and begin grazing their
herd in a rotational system.
The Nelsons raise their own grain for feed. Their
standard rotation is corn, soybeans, oats and alfalfa. In some winters,
they let the alfalfa grow as a cover crop, then plow and plant a
cash crop into it in the spring. They haul manure from the barns
and spread it twice a year on the crop fields, supplementing very
occasionally with commercial fertilizer when soil tests dictate.
The Nelsons have tried to minimize pesticide use, depending instead
on their rotations to break up insect cycles. They never spray according
to a manufacturer’s schedule. “We don’t indiscriminately spray by
the calendar,” Nelson says. “We try to avoid pesticides as much
as possible and only spray if we see an unmanageable problem.”
They raise salad vegetables — lettuces, tomatoes, cucumbers — and
sweet corn organically in any of three garden plots, one of which
is located at their Thunder Valley Inn Bed and Breakfast. A friend
manages the garden for them part time, in exchange for a share of
the produce. Most of the rest goes to feed inn guests.
The bed and breakfast offers guests a combination of Scandinavian
hospitality, entertainment and education about the rural heritage
of the United States, food production and the stewardship of land
and animals. The inn features a six-bedroom, 150-year-old farm house;
a small cottage; and a cedar building. The cottage — originally
a milk house, then a woodshed before being turned into guest quarters
— and the cedar building — formerly a bunk house for the horse ranch
— are only open during the summer. They converted a machine shed
into the inn’s restaurant. At full occupancy, the inn can accommodate
from 25 to 30 guests, with children encouraged.
“We hope to help people understand, just a bit, how important the
land is for food, not only for the people, but for the animals and
how we have to care for it,” Nelson says. “We try to get people
to realize that we have a limited amount of land and we have to
nurture it so it can be used in the future. I hope our guests then
realize a little bit more how valuable agriculture is.”
Visitors are given the option of helping workers perform farm chores,
such as gathering eggs from their flock of 50 layers or feeding
their four goats. Both activities are very popular with children.
To further enrich their stay, the Nelsons maintain a small “zoo”
of animals, including 100 chickens (50 layers and 50 broilers),
goats, ducks and rabbits.
Breakfast is served each morning to guests, with evening dinners
open to the public. A stay at the inn features chautauqua “threshing
suppers,” a unique combination of produce from the vegetable gardens
and a program of song and storytelling. Local food includes corn,
tomatoes, lettuces, beans, cucumbers and many other vegetables from
the Nelsons’ garden, fresh strawberries and raspberries from a neighbor
and wild blackberries from the woods. The dinners are designed to
inform the guests about their rural heritage and the importance
of nurturing the land and animals.
Dinners are followed by musical entertainment with a Norwegian flavor.
A regular entertainer tells stories and plays the accordion. “Then
we talk a little bit about what is happening in rural America —
how we are losing so many families from the farm,” Nelson adds.
During the day, some of their visitors go to the dairy farm, where
they can watch as Don Nelson and his sons milk the cows, feed the
calves, and do field work, such as baling hay. In the future, Anita
Nelson hopes to organize educational farm tours to further her aim
of connecting consumers to food production.
Economics and Profitability
The farming operation supports the Nelsons and two of their adult
sons, Peter and Nels, who work with them. Like any relatively new
venture, the bed and breakfast is taking time to climb solidly into
the black.
“We are gaining in worth and are beginning to show a profit,” Nelson
says. “However, much of our income goes back into improvements and
since we are mainly a summer business, we hope to extend our season
more.”
The dairy farm has been the primary source of income for the Nelsons
and has actually helped to subsidize Thunder Valley Inn. “It takes
a long time to get any business going,” Nelson says. “With our inn,
we have had a lot of renovating to get it where it is today. It’s
like a farm, because everything goes back into the business.”
Their location near Wisconsin Dells has helped them draw customers,
Nelson says. The city, a bustling tourist town on the Wisconsin
River, attracts visitors from all over the Midwest. In fact, the
city’s population swells from 3,000 to at least two times that number
during the busy tourist season. To capitalize on their location,
the Nelsons launched a website to publicize the bed and breakfast
and linked to the town’s list of accommodations.
Environmental Benefits
The Nelsons are planning to
increase grazing for their dairy farming operation. They grow the vegetables
at the inn garden organically and have minimized pesticide spraying
on their crops. They accomplish this partly by rotating their crops
with consideration given to what was previously grown on a field — which
lessens incidences of pest outbreaks and disease.
If the field was planted in alfalfa, the Nelsons will spread a light
coat of manure without extra chemical fertilizer, only adding a small
amount when planting the next crop. They analyze the soil where they
grow corn and soybeans to determine how much manure and fertilizer to
use.
Community and Quality of
Life Benefits
The Nelsons hire several part-time
employees, including a retired school teacher who helps with bookkeeping,
their two daughters and a son-in-law. For 35 years, they have hired
students from foreign countries to spend summers working on the dairy
farm and at the inn. The Nelsons have found they’ve also benefited from
hosting foreign exchange students, who they say have brought a broader
view and a richness to their lives.
A longtime member and supporter of the National Farmers Union, Nelson
enjoyed working in the organization’s summer youth camps as a music
teacher. She especially likes how the organization brings members together
to learn more about their farming experiences.
The Nelsons have offered their children the richness of their Scandinavian
culture and the lifestyle of a family farm, resulting in the children’s
continued involvement at the farm even as they have become adults.
They derive great satisfaction from sharing their lives with visitors
and teaching about rural heritage and agriculture. Their hope is that
visitors will leave Thunder Valley with a new appreciation for the environment
and the people who produce their food.
Transition Advice
The Nelsons believe that operating
a small bed and breakfast with an agricultural theme can be a viable
option for others, if they initially have another source of income.
Anyone interested in starting up this type of business must also be
willing to dedicate themselves totally to its lifestyle and operation.
“I am absorbed here completely,” Nelson says. “Thunder Valley is a labor-intensive
kind of business.”
She added that it would have been easier for them if they had combined
the inn with a smaller dairy operation. “We have two sons that are also
on the farm and it’s a pretty full-time job for them as well as my husband,
just to keep the farm going,” she says, leaving little time for their
participation in the inn operations.
The Future
Nelson would like to put together
an educational tour package that would include more about farm life,
possibly including her Norwegian daughter-in-law as a guide.
 Profile
written by Mary Friesen
For more information:
Don and Anita Nelson
Neldell Farms and Thunder Valley Inn
W15344 Waubeek Road
Wisconsin Dells, WI 53965
(608) 254-4145
neldell@midplains.net
www.thundervalleyinn.com
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