| October 2004 | | | | Cows Roam (192 pages; $13.95; ISBN 1-59113-592-3) |
| For Immediate Release... | | | | is a collection of 20 true stories that took place on |
| Give Me a Home Where the Dairy Cows Roam | | | | her family's farm 40 years ago. Story titles include |
| COLFAX, WISCONSIN - Did you know that since | | | | "Taking the Bull by the Horns," "Spring Cleaning," "A |
| 1969, the United States has lost 85 percent of its | | | | Different Sort of Cow," "Dad's Favorite Recipe," |
| dairy farms. And did you know that since 1969, | | | | "Popsicle Blues," "On Top of the World," and "Better |
| Wisconsin has lost nearly 70 percent of its dairy | | | | Butter." |
| farms? | | | | According to Midwest Book Review, Ralph's first |
| "I lived away from my hometown in west central | | | | book, Christmas In Dairyland: True Stories From A |
| Wisconsin for 15 years. When I returned in the mid | | | | Wisconsin Farm "is a heartwarming anthology of true |
| 1990s, I expected to be living in a farming community | | | | anecdotes of rural life on a Wisconsin dairy farm. |
| again. Instead, I discovered that many of the small | | | | Even though Wisconsin is still known as America's |
| family dairy farms like the one where I grew up had | | | | Dairyland, life on a family homestead is fast being |
| disappeared" said LeAnn R. Ralph, author of the | | | | replaced by corporate agribusiness, and the memories |
| books Christmas in Dairyland (True Stories from a | | | | treasured in Christmas In Dairyland are quickly |
| Wisconsin Farm) (August 2003) and Give Me a Home | | | | becoming unique milestones of an era needing to be |
| Where the Dairy Cows Roam (October 2004). | | | | preserved in thought and print for the sake of future |
| Figures from the Census of Agriculture and from the | | | | generations. Christmas In Dairyland is simply |
| American Farm Bureau Federation indicate that in | | | | wonderful reading and is a 'must' for all Wisconsin |
| 1969 more than a half a million dairy farms operated | | | | public library collections." |
| in the United States, but by the year 2000, only | | | | Ralph earned a Bachelor of Arts in English with a |
| 83,000 dairy farms remained. And according to | | | | writing emphasis from the University of |
| statistics from the U.S. Census of Agriculture, during | | | | Wisconsin-Whitewater and also earned a Master of |
| the last three decades of the twentieth century, | | | | Arts in Teaching from UW-Whitewater. She worked |
| Wisconsin went from 66,000 dairy farms down to | | | | as a newspaper reporter for nine years and also has |
| 20,000 dairy farms. | | | | taught English at a boys' boarding school. She is the |
| "That's why I decided to write stories about growing | | | | editor of the Wisconsin Regional Writer (the quarterly |
| up on a dairy farm. Our farm was home-steaded by | | | | publication of the Wisconsin Regional Writers' Assoc.). |
| my Norwegian great-grandfather in the late 1800s, | | | | Give Me a Home Where the Dairy Cows Roam and |
| but small family farms are a thing of the past. They | | | | Christmas in Dairyland (True Stories from a Wisconsin |
| have pretty much disappeared from the landscape," | | | | Farm)are available through Barnes & Noble and For |
| Ralph said. | | | | more information or to order the books, visit or call |
| "My dad milked 20 cows and knew all of them by | | | | LeAnn at (715) 962-3368. |
| name. Nowadays the trend is toward corporate | | | | Contact Information: |
| farms that milk hundreds of cows," she said. | | | | LeAnn R. Ralph; E6689 970th Ave. |
| Ralph's new book, Give Me a Home Where the Dairy | | | | |