In February 2023, ProPublica released an article outlining the death of an 8-year-old Nicaraguan boy at D&K Dairy in 2019. Authorities allegedly blamed the father for hitting the boy with a skid steer, however migrant advocates and the boy’s father dispute this and suggest investigators did not gather the correct information due to language barriers.

The article alleges another worker hit the boy on the skid steer, and that worker had not had appropriate training on how to drive the machine. The article also alleges the boy and his father lives onsite in a barn above a milking parlor, in proximity to where the farmers worked. In court filings, the farm’s owners disputed that they lived there.

In August 2020, the boy’s father filed a wrongful death lawsuit against D&K Dairy, its insurer, Rural Mutual Insurance, and the skid steer driver. The boy’s father believes the farm should be held responsible. An engineer hired by the father’s attorneys to inspect the skid steer said the machine’s horn, back-up alarm and rear lights were not working.

The article highlights how dairy farm work is ‘dangerous and dirty and ... pays poorly’, and that many workers in the sector are undocumented. Due to their undocumented status, many migrant workers live onsite to avoid driving without a license. Around Dane Country, many of the workers are Nicaraguan. The boy’s father alleges he worked long hours: in a typical two-week period, he would work 150 hours, and did not receive overtime pay.

The farm’s owners and Rural Mutual Insurance declined to comment about the accident to the journalists. A later article released in June 2023 states the boy’s father settled the lawsuit against the farm.

In November 2023, Wisconsin officials approved reforms that respond to the flawed investigation that led to the boy’s father being wrongly accused. The reforms include USD 8 million funding for farmworker housing, and measures to improve access to government services for people who do not speak English.