UNIVERSITY FARM SELLS OFF DAIRY HERD

Southeast Missouri State University's dairy farm is all milked out.

One by one, the herd of 100 Holsteins was auctioned Thursday under an orange and brown tent on the farm along County Road 618, north of Cape Girardeau. The milking equipment was also sold.

About 250 people attended the auction, including a buyer from New York. Many of the cows sold for $800 to $1,000.

The school has decided to change from a dairy and beef farm to strictly a beef-cattle operation. Proceeds from the auction will be plowed into the beef operation.

The university wants to increase the number of beef cattle from 44 to 100.

For Freddie and Edith Ristig, the auction seemed more like a funeral.

They sat quietly for hours on the metal bleachers listening to the auctioneer and watching a part of their lives being herded away forever.

The Ristigs began the dairy farm more than 50 years ago. Over the years, they expanded the farm from 33 acres to 413 acres.

"It was a showcase operation," Freddie Ristig, 80, recalled after the last dairy cow was led away Thursday.

In 1976, the Ristigs sold the farm to the university.

School officials said at the time that the Ristigs made a substantial donation to the university because the dairy farm was worth more than the purchase price.

With the purchase of the dairy farm, the school closed down the 100-acre farm which it had been operating on the north edge of the campus.

The Ristigs, who still reside on their former farm, thought it would remain a dairy farm forever.

"I wanted it all to stay together and be a dairy farm," Ristig said.

"It is a bad deal," he complained of the dairy farm's demise.

Edith Ristig, 78, felt as if a part of her life was auctioned Thursday. "I lived all my life with calves and cows," she said.

The Ristigs tried to block the school's decision to dump the dairy operation but discovered that their agreement with the university only stipulates the land be used for agriculture.

In the end, they could only sit and watch as the cows passed through the auction ring one by one.

Southeast agriculture professor Bill Ellis said beef cattle require less labor and care than dairy cows, which have to be milked twice a day.

"It has to be affordable," he said. "The farm has to pay its own way."

Ellis added that there are more beef than dairy farms in this region.

Agriculture professor Michael Aide lamented the passing of the dairy. But he said, "Our mission is education, not producing milk."

Freddie Ristig said the dairy farm was profitable when he turned it over to the university. He questioned how profitable the beef operation would be.

Farm Manager Neil Hermann said he understands the Ristigs' disappointment. "They worked their entire life to build the thing up."

Hermann said it will take several years to determine if the university has steered the farm in the right direction.