Rick Ultz was born a dairy farm, a stone s throw from the village of Burr Oak.
On March 31, he retired from the dairy business.
Along with farming, Ultz is long-time educator at Burr Oak High School. On Wednesday, that was an excuse to avoid seeing his bovine friends leave. When the cows were loaded in the morning and rolled out of the driveway, he wasn t there to watch.
“I was a coward,” Ultz said. “I went to school . they were more than friends. We named all the cows.”
He remembers Fair Queen, his mother’s 4-H milk cow that was still on the farm when he was young.