331 | Building a Legacy That Lasts: Tommy Oesch on Transitioning Swisslane Farms Forward
Transition Talks from the Farm Forward Conference
At the Farm Forward Conference, Uplevel Dairy Podcast host Peggy Coffeen interviews Tommy Oesch of Swisslane Farms in Michigan about his multi-generational family farm transition from junior partner to senior leader and preparing for the next generation. Tommy describes the farm’s origins with his Swiss immigrant great-grandfather, early succession planning begun in 2004–2005, requirements for the next generation to work off-farm, and his and his brother’s years in outside careers before returning in 2011 to build a 500-cow robotic dairy.
He explains growth through leasing opportunities instead of building, reaching about 5,600 cows across multiple sites, buying out the senior generation, and shifting their income from salary to equity payments to support leadership transition. He highlights hard conversations, including selling real estate to cover debt during Michigan’s 2015–2019 processing challenges, the need for intra-generation alignment through weekly meetings, and wishing they had brought in professional help earlier.
Make sure to tune in all week as we drop recap episodes from the conference right here on the podcast!
02:02 Meet Tommy Oesch
02:49 Swisslane Origin Story
05:06 Off Farm Lessons
06:36 Back to Dairy Growth
07:40 Leadership Buyout Shift
12:13 Hard Times Real Estate
15:05 Generational Negotiations
18:21 Aligning Weekly Meetings
18:54 What We'd Change
