On June 13, Tom and Kay Luxton and their family will open the gates of Windi Ridge Farm to host the 35th annual Sauk County Dairy Breakfast, an ambitious undertaking aimed at bridging the gap between farmers and consumers.
The Luxtons have spent a full year preparing their property to welcome an estimated 3,000 guests. The massive effort required a series of renovations, including a new driveway, building siding, and fresh paint in the milking parlor. Backed by 75 local partners and agribusinesses, the couple wanted the event to be both engaging and educational.
Instead of a standard farm tour, the Luxtons have invited industry experts, including nutritionists, veterinarians, and milk inspectors, to station themselves directly in the barns to answer public questions. Visitors will get a firsthand look at modern cow comfort, featuring automatic scratching brushes and a “twinning” practice that pairs young calves together to reduce social stress.
The educational focus will also highlight environmental stewardship in Wisconsin’s hilly Driftless Region. The Luxtons practice regenerative farming by using 100-foot contour strips to prevent soil erosion and following a county-approved nutrient management plan for manure application.
“As far as regenerative farming, that’s something that dairy farmers all do and have always been doing,” Kay Luxton explains, emphasizing the natural cycle of returning manure to the fields. “That manure builds the soil health, it builds the biodiversity, builds the biome in the soil.”
For the Luxtons, the ultimate goal of the breakfast is to showcase daily operations and demonstrate how modern dairy farms protect their resources for the future.
“We want this to be more than just a breakfast,” Luxton says. “We want it to be educational, we want the consumer to come out and see what a dairy farm is all about really and learn a little bit about it.”
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