“It’s not work,” says Pete Hardin, editor and publisher of The Milkweed, the 12-page monthly dairy industry report that he has overseen for 45 1/2 years.
At 75, Hardin of Brodhead, has an active schedule that would be a challenge for most, but with over five decades of experience as a dairy reporter and publisher, he keeps going. On any given day, Hardin can be found pounding the pavement like any good beat reporter. In this case, the pavement might be a meadow of sweet clover. He could be at Arena Cheese inquiring about cheddar prices, or checking in with staff reporter and dairy farmer Jan Shepel on the state of her handsome jerseys. And it’s not hard to see why Hardin is busy. With a warm personality and friendly demeanor, Harden has spent a lifetime cultivating a raft of excellent sources.
After Hardin’s got the story, it’s off to the Register Print Center in Brodhead, which he considers his “home away from home.” There, along with associate Ed Mikkelsson, he races to get this month’s paper finished. Once the articles are written, edited, and set, the pages are sent to Madison Media Partners – the same building where The Capitol Times is printed. Soon the pages emerge fresh off the traditional four-color offset press. Even though The Milkweed can be found online and has email subscribers, it’s still published the old-fashioned way. “My readers would rather spill coffee on their reading material in the morning,” says Hardin.
Those readers would primarily be dairy farmers, but any Wisconsinite with a tooth for colorful prose and a desire for deep insights into Wisconsin’s cherished industry will feel right at home.
The Milkweed is one of the only sources of investigative journalism in the dairy industry. Hardin sees himself as a fighter for both farmer and consumer. His nameplate even bears the words of the immortal Muhammad Ali, “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,” an unusual choice for a paper that prints the rising and falling of yogurt prices – yet wholly endearing. And as readers will attest, Hardin is not afraid to throw punches. “We’ve got nice stories and we’ve got tough stories,” he says with a smile. Hardin has been known to go to battle if he feels a farmer or consumer is being treated unfairly. He likes to, as he puts it, “kick butt.”
Hardin is passionate about dairy. According to Hardin, the greatest governor of Wisconsin was William Dempster Hoard, the father of Wisconsin’s dairy industry. To Hardin, milk is the principal economic lifeblood of Wisconsin and the dairy industry has pulses. “The pulses of production, the pulses of the farmer and the cattle, the pulses of consumer demand… it’s really intriguing and complex,” he says. At 75, with still more story still to tell, Pete Hardin is not ready to go out to pasture.
