Austin Vandertie is making sure that as long as you park your car at the local diner in Brussels, there will be a dairy farm right behind it. A sixth-generation farmer, the 25-year-old Vandertie took over the family farm from his parents, Dan and Julie, in January 2025 after earning his dairy science degree and business management certificate from UW-Madison. Vandertie instantly brings youth into an industry that is getting older. According to the 2022 Census of Agriculture, the average age of a Wisconsin farmer is 56.7 years old, up from 56.0 in 2017. Nationwide, only nine percent of all farmers are under the age of 35, which is actually up 3.9 percent from 2017. An even smaller segment is under the age of 30. Vandertie says his dad knew he had a chance to pass the farm down to him when he asked how he would feed his cows if they turned his 400 acres into a subdivision. It was just a matter of when, setting in motion a succession plan that gave Vandertie a deeper understanding of his family farm beyond the 40 cows it milks on a daily basis. Vandertie says they sorted out the details over the last few years, adding that it was tough to find a balance to ensure that his parents were taken care of financially in their retirement while making sure there was enough for him to keep the farm going…