(bright music) (upbeat music) - Hello, and welcome to another edition of "10thirtysix".

I'm Portia Young.

We have a lot packed into this next half hour, including a front-line supported "10thirtysix" documentary, about some next-generation Wisconsin dairy farmers whose passion and creativity might help family farms survive, and we'll have an important update on Edumakono Zetho, the former Congolese refugee whose journey we've been following for the past two years.

First, we want to turn to what's on most of our minds these days.

When will we have the chance to receive the COVID 19 vaccine?

The vaccine arrived in Milwaukee the week before Christmas.

Medical personnel were the first to be vaccinated, with first responders and folks in senior care communities next in line.

Our colleague, Raul Galvan, is the father of a nurse practitioner and the son of someone in the Wauwatosa care community.

He says the vaccine offers his four-generation family hope for a safe and more normal future.

- Our family unit has been pretty cautious so we are still seeing our immediate family in town, which includes you, which is why I'm not wearing a mask.

And my grandma lives in a long-term care facility.

So we are all careful and conscientious so that we don't infect her.

- [Raul] My daughter, Sara, received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on the 18th of December at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin where she works on the neonatal intensive care unit.

- I didn't even have a sore arm, which I kind of wanted to have a sore arm so at least I knew that it was really working.

I would say probably of the people that I know, very few had significant side effects.

- [Raul] Sara's 91 year old grandmother, my mother, Susana, lives in independent living in St. Camillus Life Plan Community in Wauwatosa.

She's scheduled to get the vaccine soon.

- Well, I think that if there is a vaccine, I want to have it.

- Why?

- Well, not to have the disease, to avoid the disease.

- [Raul] Shannon Angel is the COO at St. Camillus.

- [Shannon] I'm raising my hand to be first in line.

We're clamoring, how can we get that here?

And when can we get it?

And how quickly can we get it?

The Wisconsin Department of Health is kind of in control of who's going to get the vaccine when and who's going to get which one.

- [Raul] St. Camillus had its first round of vaccines on January 12th, inoculating staff and residents from skilled nursing, assisted living and memory care.

- [Kevin] We've been dealing with COVID and the implications and just the safety of our residents since, for the last nine to 10 months.

Very excited for today.

- Since she lives in a facility, she doesn't go out as much as the rest of us.

I'm not sure she really understands what it's been like.

How our lives have really changed because of the virus.

But I think that she understands that there are very real risks to her and she's really excited to get the vaccine.

I said to her, well, are you going to get the vaccine?

And she said, why wouldn't I?

Which I loved.

I was most worried about grandma and not wanting my kids to bring it home or in fact to grandma.

And so we sat down and we talked about it as a family and decided that the first quarter of school, we would stay home.

- [Raul] The vaccine will bring some normalcy to folks like Susana and other senior center residents who have seen their lives seriously curtailed.

- [Shannon] It's taken an emotional toll, having residents not be able to see their families and seeing a lot of our residents cognitively decline over the last year.

I think it's absolutely because of lack of socialization and the lack of normal everyday things going on in their lives.

- [Raul] And what will mom look forward to doing post vaccine?

- I want to go to the movies and I want to go to the store without the worry of getting the coronavirus.

And I can go to see Matilda - Matilda is Susanna's newest great-granddaughter.

Many families are looking forward to a healthier and safer time.

How the vaccine is distributed and to whom remains a very fluid situation.

For the very latest on how this all is impacting our lives and the latest on administering the vaccine, please watch, "The Vaccine," a Milwaukee PBS special on February 4th at 7:00 PM.

I will be joined by Earl Arms from Black Nouveau and Patricia Gomez from Adelante for the one hour live special.

That's February 4th at 7:00 PM.

We recently brought you the story of Loyal, a small Wisconsin dairy town, and how small businesses and farmers there struggled to survive during the onset of the pandemic.

In recent months, "10thirtysix" producers, along with our partners at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, looked back at Loyal to examine the future of dairy farming.

They found some next generation farmers who just might help save America's dairy land.

(ominous music) - When you look at the dairy industry, I don't think small farmers have a lot of hope.

(ominous music) - It's been in the family.

It's in our blood.

You don't want to be that one that it just ends at you because then you feel like it's on you for the rest of your life.

(ominous music) - [Rick] The small dairy farm has been the backbone of America's dairyland.

I'm Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Rick Barrett, and I've been covering the dairy industry for years.

Thousands of those family farms have been sold or forced out of business because of low milk prices, labor challenges and new competition like non-dairy beverages.

The future of dairy farming is being passed from one generation to another in places like Clark County, Wisconsin.

How will the next generation of dairy farmers survive and succeed?

I visited three families to find out.

(ominous music) (cattle mooing) (feed being rattled) In Roehl Acres, you'll often find Dennis and Suzie Roehl's three children doing their daily chores.

(cattle mooing) What do you want for your kids?

Do you want them to be the next generation on the farm?

- Oh, I think so.

I think so.

As long as they embrace the change.

- [Rick] The Roehl kids would be fourth-generation dairy farmers if they continue the family business.

Younger minds could help save America's dairyland says global futurist, Jack Aldrich, who I invited to join me at the Roehl farm.

- If you wanna survive in the future, you have to have a beginner's mind.

Having a beginner's mind when you're 40 or 50, it's hard to go back.

So if you're blessed with children, they are inherently curious.

One of the changes that I think both you, Suzie and Dennis, you're gonna have to be open to is learning from your children.

The world is changing so fast.

And be open to their ideas.

And I think there's gonna be so much change in the next decade.

And children are just more exposed to some of the technological change, especially at the digital level that you have to be willing to listen to younger people.

- [Rick] You think you'll be a farmer someday?

- Probably.

- Why is that?

- I don't know.

I was in the barn since I was three.

- Okay.

And Kathryn, what about you?

- I'm more between both of them.

I want to be an interior decorator and help Jackson on the farm.

- I do think we have to change for our children to want to continue, - I think probably one of the things that we're looking at very hard is the robotic milker.

That would be, I think, our biggest challenge on the farm other than financial is hired help.

It's getting people here.

It's really tough.

It's tough.

- And Jack, are they on the right track here?

How do you feel about it?

- The look at robotic technology I think is absolutely spot on.

I think the difficult thing is to know when to pull the trigger.

I mean, robotic technology is gonna get better and it's also going to get more affordable over time.

And I mean, I think that many kids look at you and your parents and they saw that you were working 24/7, 365 and said that's a hard life.

But suddenly with robotic technology it is actually going to make farming more attractive for the next generation.

(ominous music) - I've been doing it since when I was a little kid.

I think I have a photo right here of me helping my dad.

So I've been doing it forever but I still learn things every day.

- [Rick] Next generation dairy farmer Max Malm uses technology to succeed.

His family is among the first in the state to have an automated cow feeder in addition to their milking robots.

- [Max] My dad and my grandfather have allowed the farm to embrace technology.

- [Rick] They've been pretty open to your ideas and letting you try things.

- Yeah, they are.

I have to convince them but I think they trust me and we've done a lot of things that I wanted to do.

And sometimes it hasn't worked out but I think overall they listen to me and we work well together.

(machinery whirring) So what you're looking at is our software program.

It has your milk production, your milkings per day.

If you want to save labor, you want the cows to do everything on their own.

You want them to get milked, you want them to eat and you want them to be healthy.

- [Rick] And how much would it cost for something like that to put in robots?

- [Max] Well, one robot, I think they're anywhere from 200 to $250,000 per robot.

And then you have to build the barn around that.

- Wow!

- So yeah, you're looking at for a two robot barn, easily $1 million.

And it's an investment that's a long-term investment.

And you just have to believe and want to do that the rest of your life.

It's like buying a house.

You're kind of stuck with it.

(machine whirring) It that allows us to do a lot more, especially on the cropping side of things and just taking care of your other animals.

- Well, I think if you actually look at the future of the farm, I mean, I think there are going to be robots.

They're going to be manless tractors.

There are going to be satellites looking down on your individual farm fields identifying which crops are growing, which ones aren't, and you are going to be able to apply the exact amount of water, the exact amount of pesticide, herbicide, whatever you need on it.

And you're doing things efficiently today but in the future farmers are going to take their game to another level.

(somber music) (rooster calls) - [Rick] Most small dairy farmers are like brothers, Chris and Robin Rueth, who say high-end technology is just not feasible right now.

- Now it's like a roller coaster.

Like I said, you got your good years, you're making extra money and all, you're paying bills off or upgrading stuff.

But then you've got your down times and it's just like, okay, you just kinda gotta be careful financially.

Watch your spending.

(wheel barrow whirring) (Robin mucking out) - [Rick] You want to get into robotics or anything like that?

- [Chris] It's in conversation.

It's an idea we're just kind of bouncing around.

We're not gonna say not for sure but time will tell.

- It's a lot of money.

- Yeah, it is.

Other guys go to the robots because it's hard to find a really good employee that sticks it out.

Like nowadays it's basically a good employees a needle in the haystack.

(engine revving) - [Rick] So Chris, what do you like about it?

Chris, what is it about farming that you really enjoy?

- I would say it's the flexibility of owning your own business.

And at the end of the year, seeing what you achieved, what you've been through.

- I don't know, farm is one thing not everybody can do it.

You really got to enjoy it to be doing it.

'Cause it's a 24/7 job.

And I like farm.

(indistinct) It's a rewarding life but it'll be a challenge too.

Some days are better than others.

You gotta be there.

You can't shut cows down.

(cattle mooing) - And for some farmers, could it mean that maybe they're not necessarily milking cows for their main income, they might be doing something else?

- I think that is true.

I think they're going to have to look at diversifying.

I think that there is going to be the opportunity for dairy and cheese, but some innovative farmers in the off season are growing hazelnuts.

They're doing other things.

What else could you be doing with the land?

I think the advances in renewable energy are going to become astounding.

So there's still a lot of open space here.

Solar panels, wind turbines, producing some energy, look to diversify your farm.

The very farm that we're at also has an event center.

And I think that that is a wonderful way to diversify their income.

- We have dairy cows, but we also raise all our bull calves and we feed them out and sell them when they're about 1500 pounds.

And we also run enough land.

We own 650 acres of crop lands that we can sell excess corn and beans.

(gentle music) - [Rick] For generations, Wisconsin has been America's dairyland, helping to feed the world.

But struggles remain.

(gentle music) (cattle mooing) Futurist Jack Uldrich and our next generation farmers say you have to creatively build your own future despite the sobering reality of disappearing dairy farms across Wisconsin.

- We are going to return to small and medium-sized farms that are distributed throughout the world.

So I would be cautiously optimistic.

But this isn't to say that they don't need to change.

They need to leverage today's existing technology to do what they've always done but to do it better, faster, more affordably and move into innovative new products and services.

- You kind of wonder are times too okay.

How long is the family farming gonna last?

Like when we get 10 or 20 years down the road, how many of these family farms are gonna be going?

Especially people Chris and I's age.

- [Rick] What's your advice if you were saying, if you all are going to get into this, Jackson, Devin, Kathryn, if you're all gonna do this, what's your advice for them?

What do you wanna teach them?

- Well, it's everything is always evolving.

So you can't be afraid of change, and things are gonna change.

They always have.

They always will.

And I think as long as you embrace the change instead of try and stay away from it, I think you'd be okay.

- Is there still gonna be a lot of small farms?

The way our generation is going, I think if you want to continue farming, you're gonna have to try to do things that benefit not just yourself but the community and the environment, your land.

That's what the future is going to be.

(ominous music) - Please check out milwaukeepbs.org/dairy to read reporter Rick Barrett's story on the future of Wisconsin's dairy industry.

Many of you told us you've been touched by the story of Edumakono Zetho a former Congolese refugee who's been the focus of our documentary, "A Hope for Tomorrow."

As you may recall before settling in Milwaukee and becoming a US citizen, he lived in a refugee camp after escaping unimaginable violence in the Congo as a young boy.

(object explodes) (people screaming) - I was born in Democratic Republic of the Congo.

But I didn't get a chance to live in my country because of the war.

(dramatic music) (people shouting) my mom was a victim of sex, harassment and sex abuse in front of my eyes, which is something that I take painful in my life that I don't know how I can take it out.

You can see the people that you love are murdered in front of your eyes.

- Zetho has overcome much in his life.

His goal is to continue to help others.

Part of that plan includes graduating from MATC this past December with an associates degree in human services.

- The day of my graduation, I was overwhelmed.

I was so happy, and I was like, Ooh God, my dreams just come true.

Basically the human services program is based on improving quality of the life of the people that we serve.

It's the same as social work program.

We (indistinct) in the mental health and social services, improving quality of life.

So it's a social work in general.

Case management is one of the goals of this program.

And counseling is one of the things that we've based on, how we can help people to overcome from the stress and how we can help individuals and families who goes to a hard time such as mental health and drug abuse, even financial stuff.

So in human services, we learn all the services that we have in our state and around the United States, and how we can help individuals and families to navigating all those programs that we have.

It was not easy.

I really appreciate my wife for the support, my mama, my friends.

Everyone was pushing me.

Like you can do it.

The only thing you have to do is trusting in God.

And one of the quote that I love to use all the time is Malcolm X, he said, "Education is the passport for the future, "for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for the today."

So when you believe in education, you can do anything in the United States.

I'm working at Catholic Charities right now, part time, as a refugee community integration specialist.

I also work for A to Z Language Services, part-time as needed, as a medical interpreter.

We have many people in our communities, they don't speak English.

So they have trouble to get a service whenever they go in a hospital.

So as soon as I moved in United States, I was the hub of a United Methodist church.

I've been taking some classes and I was appointed as the associate pastor, the local pastor of the African ministry.

So I'm a decent guy.

My main goal is to get a bachelor degree.

And my plan for 2021 is to join the Department of Educational Policy and Community Studies at UWM.

Based on where I came from and the life in Democratic Republic of Congo, they don't really have a mental health facility.

So I believe if I can join this program, I can learn.

I can get enough tools to go back in the refugee camp where I came from (speaks in foreign language), as well as Congo to help other children to overcome what we call PTSD.

I have to go back to help others.

There is thousands of refugees who are widows and orphans in the refugee camp who need to overcome stress and they don't know how.

So they need someone to help them.

And I believe I'm that person, according to the call that I feel I have to go back in the Congo, to go back in the refugee camp, to help other victims.

People have to understand this.

The United States of America is the only country on earth where refugees, sons of refugees, daughters of refugees and immigrants, with hard work they can live their American dreams.

(gentle music) - If you'd like to watch the documentary, "A Hope for Tomorrow," please go to milwaukeepbs.org/specials.

That'll do it for this edition of "10thirtysix."

Remember to check us out on Facebook and online at milwaukeepbs.org.

We leave you with a look from above, the prep work for the ice castles in Lake Geneva which is now open to the public.

See you next time.

(bright music)