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As we look out across our fields of corn and
soybeans, our thoughts turn to those men
and women who farmed this land before
us. Benjamin Mead, who settled here in
1840, had a dream of farming. He worked
clearing the land and carving out small
fields by hand. Years passed, and in the
mid-depression and the war years, Jim
Brook lived and farmed here. Horses pulled
the farm  machinery and the farm
increased in size. Today our tractors,
machinery, and combines glide over our
acres smoothly, able to pass over many
acres in one day. In fact, in one day on
Crane Farms, we can do the job that once
took weeks to accomplish. So many
changes and constant improvements in
agriculture help us improve our methods
every year. So many changes, yet the
heart of this farm never changes.
Farming is what we do, it is our way of life, it
is who we are. Those before us would have
said the same, if asked. The love of the land
and the care of the animals is the most
honorable of professions, and we are
grateful that we can continue in this tradi-
tion. Since the 1860's crops have been
planted and harvested, children have
been raised, clothes have been hung out
to dry in the yard, births and deaths have
come and gone, but the land and the
farm remains.
So, in this sesquicentennial year, Crane
Farms, located at 29320 31st St., Burlington,
welcomed over 3,000 people to the
Kenosha County Dairy Breakfast. A cele-
bration of sorts, a mix of the old with the
new. They watched our cows being milked
in a computerized milking parlor located in
the oldest part of the barn. They saw the
modern John Deere tractor stand in the
shadow of a running threshing machine.
And the cows, slow, quiet, and docile,
watched from their pasture unaffected by
the crowds or by time.
We are Wisconsin...
    We are America's Dairyland...
        We are Proud to be Farmers.
        Bob & Sue Crane and our 7 children
                      Crane Farms 1998
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