by Mike Orso
Five Things to Know About Alan Ainger
1. Favorite food: Good fish fry
2. Favorite movie or TV show: Any Taylor Sheridan shows
3. Favorite restaurant in McHenry County: Paisano’s and Crandall’s
4. If I wasn’t farming, I’d be: A large animal veterinarian
5. What most people don’t know about me is: I enjoy watching my kids assume more responsibilities around the farm and succeed
You can’t go much further north in Illinois than the Ainger family farm that lies along the very top of McHenry County. The family has been on the rural Harvard farm since the mid-1940s, when Alan Ainger’s great grandparents, descendants of those who emigrated more than a century ago from England, moved from one not too far away located close to the Village of Greenwood.
“I’ve been here since day one,” said Ainger, 44, who cared for the farm’s animals and worked its land with his father David and uncle George Ainger, until both passed away in 2021. “All three of us farmed together.”
Now the leader of one of McHenry County’s remaining dairy farms, Alan Ainger counts on additional members of his family, such as his mother Carol, 67, his wife Katie, 46, sons Kyle, 17, Jake, 15 and daughter Ava, 13 all playing major roles in its day-to-day functions. In addition to milking 300 cows twice a day, the family and its employees also raise cows for other dairy farms, feed cattle for beef and grow crops.
“I’m just a cow guy,” said Ainger on what he enjoys most about farming. “It’s something I just always liked. There are not many parts of farming that I don’t like, but the dairy cows have always been a passion of mine.”
In fact, the Ainger farm probably represents one of the very few dairy farms in McHenry County that raises and milks different breeds of dairy cattle. Alan Ainger considers it kind of a hobby gone awry.
“We are majority Holstein,” said Ainger on the breed that make up most of his dairy herd. “We have a fair amount of Jersey’s, a fair amount of Brown Swiss. Then we have a Guernsey heifer, an Ayrshire heifer and a couple milking Shorthorns. So, we have all the dairy breeds here.”
While the family still utilizes an updated, 116-year-old dairy barn, the farm also includes newer buildings. Two have been constructed in recent years, designed to keep the animals at different stages of their lives comfortable, even in the most extreme temperatures. For example, one of the farm’s two new barns to raise calves has moveable sides that can be lowered when temperatures drop and raised when they rise. Each milking cow wears a small activity monitor, and Ainger can oversee its health and production using an app on his mobile phone.
“It’s a little tag on the ear,” said Ainger. “It acts the same as a Fitbit does. That’s kind of like my lifeline for the cows.”
Ainger gained most of his knowledge growing up on the farm, supplemented by his time as part of Alden-Hebron (A-H) high school’s class of 1999 and the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Farm and Industry short course. A-H had no agriculture classes nor an FFA chapter at the time, so he spent afternoons of his junior and senior year at Harvard high school to be able to participate in each. In 2023, A-H reinstituted an agriculture curriculum and an FFA chapter, a move the Aingers and many other members of the community strongly supported.
“My kids have benefited a lot, they’ve enjoyed being in it, but what I like to see is there are kids that did not come from an ag background that have gotten involved,” said Ainger. “Those kids are talking about careers in ag.”
In addition to farming, his agricultural career includes local leadership in Club Town Inc., the non-profit entity which owns and operates barns on the McHenry County Fairgrounds, where he serves as president. He also has served on the McHenry County Farm Bureau board of directors since 2021 and currently serves as the organization’s treasurer.
“I’m actually starting to get to be one of the older board members now,” said Ainger. “So, it’s kind of neat to see that we’re able each year to bring in a new young person.”
Ainger, who walks out the door of his farm home every day at 4:30 a.m. to care for his animals, expresses enthusiasm about the future, especially because his children have indicated an interest in carrying on the farm family’s legacy.
“This is all we’ve known, this is all we have wanted to do,” he said. “It runs in our blood. We have a pretty good passion for it.”
The Ainger family last fall after Kyle Ainger (center) and the Alden-Hebron Giant’s football team’s playoff run. From left, Ava, 13, Alan, 44, Kyle, 17, Katie, 46, Jake, 15. (Ainger family photo)
Alan Ainger near one of two of the McHenry County farm’s newer barns to house dairy calves. “We used to use calve hutches located in a couple of different locations on the farm,” said Ainger. “This just brings the calves out of the elements and keeps them drier.”
The Ainger family farm includes a new barn for dairy calves. Carol Ainger, 67, takes the lead to ensure each calf is well-bedded and well-fed. The calves live on milk for 60 days and then start to feed on grain. They will start to provide milk just before they reach two years of age.
The Ainger farm near Harvard includes all of the major breeds of dairy cows. “The Holsteins are normally really easy to work with, they just kind of go with the flow,” said Alan Ainger. “The Jerseys, I kind of always call them a little cocky. They’re the smallest breed, but they kind of go where they want to. The (Brown) Swiss can just be kind of laid back and kind of move at their own pace. They all have their distinct personalities and breed characteristics.”