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Norm E Lane Evolution
1946
Norm E Lane was Established
1964-1972
1974-1980
The farm began in 1946 when Norman Meissner and wife Elaine were married and purchased the original 160 acres where Norm-E-Lane dairy is located today. Norman and Elaine began with 18 cows and a team of horses for the field work. Over the next several years, much land was cleared and the farm began to grow. Norm and Elaine raised four sons and two daughters. Three sons, Edwin, Jerrold, and David returned to the farm and continued to expand. Edwin and David would later part ways with the farm leaving Jerrold, along with his son Joshua to operate the dairy today.
A barn fire destroyed the existing 50 stall cow barn, so a new 80 stall tie-stall barn with a double-8 milking parlor was immediately constructed. Cattle numbers continued to grow and new land was gradually acquired. Upon high school graduation in 1972, Jerrold (Diane) joined his parents and siblings on the farm after a brief college experience at U.W. Madison.
A new 420 cow state-of-the-art freestall barn was constructed, which brought about more land acquisitions in the 70’s and 80’s. Youngstock facilities also continued to grow along with the increased cattle numbers. The farm was totally self-sufficient, as all youngstock and all feed for the cattle was raised by the family. David joined the farm full time in 1980 after high school and by this time the farm was a very close-knit family operation.
1998-2000
2001-2009
2023
Joshua (Sheri) attended the University and Wisconsin–LaCrosse and graduated in 1998 with a bachelor degree in Business Management and immediately joined his dad and uncle on the farm. At this time, talk had already begun to expand the operation. So, in the spring of 2000, construction began, and by September the new double-25 parlor and three freestall barns were up and running.
2001 brought construction of another 400 stall barn which grew the dairy to 1500 cows by 2003. In 2005, Jeremy (Lindsay) joined the operation after graduating from the University of Wisconsin – River Falls with a bachelor’s degree in Dairy Science. 2007 saw the next big expansion as 2 more barns were built, one a 450 stall free stall barn and the other a transition facility/maternity barn. The methane digester was also built and installed. 2009 finished with another 450 stall barn, which has since completed our facility updates and has taken the milking parlor to full capacity.
Four calf barns are constructed on the main site. Historically housing calves in calf hutches, these barns create an opportunity to further improve our calf health and animal care. Additionally, Josh's son Emmett enters the dairy full time after college and a year spent in North Dakota. There he worked at Black Leg Ranch, a beef and buffalo operation near Bismarck, ND.
2024
Today
Norm-E-Lane acquires Four Mile Creek Dairy from Jim and Audrey Kusilek. Jim's son, Alex Kusilek remains as the site manager of Four Mile Creek, a key role in the operation. This addition of 1600 cows grows brings the total milking cows to 4,000 today.
Today, Norm-E-Lane consists of 4000 milking cows with an additional 3000 young stock and replacement heifers. A near 40,000 gallons of milk is shipped to Nasonville Dairy, and Burnett Co-op daily, all being turned into cheese! Additionally, over 7,000 acres are cared for and used to feed our animals. With the help of 70 amazing employees, we continuously advance our enterprises through passionate people, meaningful relationships, leading edge farming, and exceptional animal care. GO MILK!
