Farming in the face of regulation

STRATFORD, Wis. — Kevin Schmidtke is four years into living his dream of dairy farming — a dream that comes with a hope of watching the farm his family built from scratch carry successfully into the second generation.

Alongside his wife, Kendra, and son, Kody, Schmidtke milks 74 cows, maintaining a herd of 100 on their Stratford dairy farm.

When it comes to looking towards the future though, Schmidtke has concerns about looming potential regulations. Marathon County is considering banning winter spreading of liquid and slurry manure during February and March due to high levels of phosphorus that plague the Big Eau Pleine River Watershed.

Schmidtke did not grow up on a dairy farm, but was always helping at the neighbor’s farm when he was growing up.

“I’ve always wanted to farm,” Schmidtke said. “Everyone has a dream. The question is: when you catch the dream, can you keep it a dream or does it become a nightmare?”

Armed with that philosophy, Schmidtke entered his dairy dream with an exit strategy in place.

“We decided we’d do it for a year,” Schmidtke said. “Whatever we purchased in that year we needed to make sure we could sell if no one was happy, so we could walk away. We started out pretty crude; we wanted to start basically debt-free. We had a loan for the cows and a loan for a (total mixed ration mixer) six months in. In order to make it, you have to start simple.”

The Schmidtkes spent three years building their facilities themselves from the ground up, before beginning their enterprise milking 10 cows.

“There were never more excited people than we were, when we lifted the tank lid after our first milking and saw that the milk reached the beater,” Schmidtke said. “We were able to ship milk. We laminated a copy of our first milk check. We were thrilled with that check.”

After four years, Schmidtke remains with the decision to add dairy farming to his resume. His family continues to improve the farm and their herd daily, preparing for the day the farm becomes a second-generation family farm, with Kody at the helm.

When it comes to the proposed manure spreading ban which would affect his dairy farm, Schmidtke said he feels the proposal unduly affects small-scale dairy farmers like himself.

“I don’t want an advantage, but I also don’t want a disadvantage,” Schmidtke said. “I just want the opportunity like everyone else.”

Schmidtke said there is an issue with water quality in the watershed, but questions if banning manure spreading in two months is the best solution to the issue.

“What about the salt and brine put on the roads, the airport, the landfill, the fly ash spread by the mills?” Schmidtke said.

Numbers presented at recent meetings about the proposed ordinance focused solely on manure-related runoff Schmidtke said. He said he wonders how that compares to other sources of phosphorus being introduced in surface water.

“If farms are the source of the greatest percentage, then that is where you need to start,” Schmidtke said. “But if those other sources have higher numbers, why wouldn’t you start there and work your way down, for the greatest impact?”

The one-size-fits-all approach of picking specific months to ban spreading raises concerns for Schmidtke. He said in 2024, February and March were nearly ideal conditions for spreading manure, while April and May were months that spreading was not advisable.

If the ordinance were put in place, Schmidtke questions how it will be interpreted and enforced.

“Now they’ll need manure police,” Schmidtke said. “Your interpretation of liquid and slurry manure and mine might be two different things. Even a bedding pack — if I scrape up a bedding pack, there is still going to be liquid. When I put it in my spreader, I’m going to put the hardest stuff in the back and the liquid to the front, to keep it from seeping out before I get to the field. If you’re driving by as I’m finishing spreading, you’re going to see the more liquid stuff. That is all you’ll see — me spreading liquid during the ban. You didn’t see the bedding pack.”

Schmidtke believes there are better, more proactive solutions to mitigate potential phosphorus runoff into the county’s surface waters.

“Buffer zones around surface water would be more effective, addressing the issue across the board,” Schmidtke said. “All farmers — dairy, beef, crop — would have to create those buffers.”

Schmidtke said he questions what impact his farming operation might have on the phosphorous issues in the Big Eau Pleine Reservoir.

“I don’t have any streams running through my crop land,” Schmidtke said. “Even if I did, I’m too far south for anything to flow towards the reservoir. Again, implementing buffer zones seems to be a better way to really address the problem at hand.”

This year the Schmidtkes will farm 217 acres of owned and rented land. Sourcing land has been a challenge, the newly established dairy farmer said.

“We’re surrounded by large dairies and a big cash cropper,” Schmidtke said. “But they all work with us. I appreciate that relationship. That’s the way it should be.”

This will be the first year Schmidtke will not have to purchase haylage since he started dairying four years ago.

“That will make a big difference for us,” Schmidtke said. “We have to travel a bit of a distance for some of the land, but we’re getting there. In the end, it’ll save us a lot of money.”

Schmidtke daily hauls his manure, although he has been researching the feasibility of building manure storage, even before the proposed ordinance came to light. Given his experience in navigating that process, Schmidtke questions how many farmers could meet the 3–5-year timeline for implementation of the ordinance, if passed.

“I feel like they are setting the small guys … up to fail,” Schmidtke said. “All I ask is that they at least try to make it fair.”