Corn prices force farmers to seek feed substitutes

By Lynn Vollbrecht
Staff Writer

DELAVAN — As demand for corn rises, fueled in part by ethanol mandates, so does the cost of feed for farmers with cattle and other livestock.

“Dairy and livestock farmers are really feeling the pinch of rising production costs,” said Peg Reedy of the Walworth County University of Wisconsin Extension. “They are left with the choice of either paying more to use corn, or finding alternative feeds.”

Despite these rising costs, Elkhorn dairy farmer Larry Nettesheim will continue to use a corn-based feed for his cattle.

“I know with rising prices, some farmers are finding other feeds (to be) better alternatives,” he said. “But corn is still one of the best feeds to use. Plus, I plan to retire from the milking part of our farm soon, so it doesn’t make sense to me to change at this point.”

Farmers like Nettesheim are quickly becoming the exception, though. Many accept the need to be find alternative nourishment sources for their livestock.

Ron Woodman, who has 120 head of dairy cattle on 150 acres east of Janesville, has been using potato byproduct from the Frito-Lay plant in Beloit as feed.

“I know it’s maybe half the cost of what corn is right now,” he said.

He mixes the potato paste with distillery grain — corn byproduct from ethanol production — and material like hay.

“It hasn’t affected (milk) production level either way,” Woodman said, adding he’ll continue to use the potato paste “as long as the cows like it. It’s a cheaper source of feed.”

Reedy believes these alternatives may only be a temporary solution.

“If production costs continue to rise ... eventually it is going to be too costly for farmers to keep their (farms) afloat,” she said.

Woodman acknowledged these difficulties, but said farmers will adjust.

“It’s going to be a challenge, because whether you use soybean or distillery grain, they are going up,” he said. “That’s how it always works — there’s always fluctuations in farming.”

— Staff Writer Amy Rath contributed to this story.

UW-W welcomes alum

WHITEWATER — Notable band and drum-corps uniform designer Michael J Cesario will return to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Saturday (May 17) to deliver the keynote speaker during his alma mater’s spring commencement ceremony.

Cesario, who graduated from UW-Whitewater in 1971, was the first student to design his own major at the university. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in theater with an emphasis in directing, and a minor in music. He was a member of the UW-Whitewater symphonic and marching bands.

After leaving Whitewater, he went on to earn a master’s degree from Ohio University. His career began by freelancing as a costume designer. He has worked in Hollywood on a variety of shows and specials at CBS and ABC.

Cesario now has developed a successful career designing band uniforms for several top-ranked universities, high schools and drum and bugle corps around the country, and was inducted into the Drum Corps International Hall of Fame.

Cesario recently was inducted into the 2007 class of Signature Sinfonians, an award which recognizes alumni members of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonian music fraternity at UW-Whitewater who have made outstanding achievements in their fields. Other Signature Sinfonians from the inaugural 2007 class are award-winning actor and musician Andy Griffith and world-renown jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson.

Cesario now lives in New York and is the owner and creative director of Cesario Designs.

In a news release, UW-Whitewater officials said they are honored to welcome back an esteemed alumnus, and they hope his message will serve to further inspire the school’s spring graduates.

The commencement ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. in the DLK/Kachel Fieldhouse on the UW-Whitewater campus.

40 years, 40 miles, $40,000

By Lynn Vollbrecht
Staff Writer

BELOIT — During the searingly hot summer of 2005, Cynthia Gray of Beloit realized there was something seriously wrong with her body.

“I was literally lying there in the ditch, going ‘something’s not right,’” she recalls.

Gray had been running that day in the countryside around Beloit, when she was suddenly unable to move her limbs. She lay in a ditch by the side of the road, five miles from her home, trying to move.

“It took me an hour before I could get up. And then I had to walk home. It made me realize that something neurological was going on,” Gray said. “They made the diagnosis very quickly at that point.”

That “something neurological” turned out to be multiple sclerosis, a disease that attacks the central nervous system and often affects mobility, vision and cognitive function. Gray first had symptoms of the disease in college, 20 years before her diagnosis, when numbness in her hands forced the then-cellist to make a career change.

“At the time, I lost all the feeling in my hands,” she said. “In college, I had trouble falling, and just assumed I was a klutz. If you’re not looking for (MS), it’s hard to catch.”

At the time of her diagnosis, back in 2005, Gray was a professor of physiological psychology at Beloit College, but changed career paths again and became the college’s director of institutional research and planning when she noticed MS affecting her teaching.

“There are cognitive issues that go along with it,” Gray said, saying that she’d be “in an intro class, trying to come up with a word.”

The two years after her diagnosis proved to be trying ones for Gray and her family as the MS took its toll.

“The last two years were a couple of bad years,” she said. “There was a period of time when it was hard to walk across the room.”

Gray wanted to stay focused and motivated, so she decided that when she felt better, she would train to run 40 miles for her 40th birthday, and raise donations that she hoped would total at least $40,000. She plans to make this run on Thursday and Friday, on a portion of the Kettle Moraine Trail.

Last June, she began a round of chemotherapy treatment that lasted until December.

“I said ‘When I finish this, I’m going to get back in shape,’” she said.

Like many, she made a New Year’s decision to start running. She sent an e-mail to friends, family and coworkers, detailing her plan to run 40 miles by her birthday, and raise money in the process. Then she started running.

“New Year’s Day, I started off with a little bit,” she said.

Since then, Gray has run an average of five days a week, adding miles to her run each week, but not always alone. Her family has been immensely supportive, she said. Her husband, Doug Gray, is the pastor at Second Congregational Church in Beloit, and told her to “go for it.” Her daughter Morgan, 14, ran with her at some points and her daughter Hannah, 9, would occasionally ride her bike with her mother. Gray’s young son, Caleb, age 4, has asked if he can run with his mother. Gray’s most constant running companion, however, has been Ann Davies, a Beloit College professor.

“On Jan. 1, I came into my office,” Davies remembers. “All of a sudden, this e-mail from Cynthia came across. I was just like, ‘Wow, that’s a re-orienting device for me. I turned 40 a few years ago, and all I did was feel sorry for myself.

“I sent an e-mail to her, and I said ‘Do you need a running partner?’”

The women had known each other prior to becoming running partners, but have grown to know each other well through their runs and conversations.

“Cynthia’s one of those people that I’ve always really respected,” Davies said. “We spend a lot of time just talking about what it means to set goals and realize them.”

Often, the two “run for breakfast,” running to local restaurants, eating breakfast, and running home.

“That’s pretty motivating. We’ll do a lot for food,” Gray said, laughing.

The going has not always been easy, however.

“Some days are hard days,” she said. “I go out, I have big plans…(and) I get down to the end of the block.”

Besides raising money for the Wisconsin chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society — between $6,000 and $7,000 has been donated so far — Gray hopes her run will raise awareness about the capabilities of people with MS.

“This is not something I should be able to do,” Gray said. “I’m fortunate — I have health insurance, I’m still working full-time, I can still run.”

That is not the case for everyone with MS, Gray realizes, which is why she wants to raise the money. However, she wants her run to illustrate that a life with MS is “not a life in a wheelchair, although many people are. Many people are not.”

“There are many people of MS who could work, but don’t, because of (employers’) perception of them,” she said.

While she is still set on pace of reaching her goal of raising $40,000, Gray said an equally great donation would be for someone to offer a person with MS a job.

“Everyone’s always asking what I want for my birthday — this is it,” she said. “That would be an excellent donation to the cause: not to make assumptions about what people can or cannot do.”