Ready for the next chapter

RICE, Minn. — It takes multiple bovine generations to develop a barn full of quality dairy animals, a feat that the Schmitt family achieved and have now shared with the world.

Mark and his wife, Natalie, and their son, Austin, had milked 80 registered Holstein cows in a tiestall barn near Rice. But Oct. 17, that changed when the herd was dispersed.

“I thought (the sale) went really nice,” Mark said. “We had good weather, good people and the cows are going to good homes. That’s what we really wanted, that way other people can use our genetics in their herds.”

Austin has intentions of taking over the family farm, but his plans do not include milking cows. As Mark and Natalie looked to transition the farm, the family decided it was time to sell the cows.

“Mark said, ‘If we sell the cows, we won’t be a farm anymore,’ and I said, ‘No, we just won’t be a dairy farm anymore.’” Natalie said. “There will always be jobs to do on the farm so we will continue to stay busy.”

Mark and his brother, Al, started their herd of registered Holsteins with one cow, Jaque, purchased in 1977 while they were still in high school.

“I was able to develop this herd with one animal, so our hope is that other people that bought our cows can build their herd like we did,” Mark said.

After carefully selecting service sires for Jaque, the Schmitt brothers were able to build their dream herd of registered animals. Jacque classified Excellent 90. Five generations later Ralma Juror Faith was born.

“She was an exceptional cow right from the start,” Mark said. “We knew she was going to be a foundation animal in our herd. She had all the conformation and production, so we started doing embryo work with her.

Before long, the Schmitts gained recognition for their high genetic herd at cattle shows such as World Dairy Expo. Using embryo transfer, they were able to sell genetics from their farm around the world.

“Faith is on every pedigree on our farm,” Mark said. “She also had a lot of daughters that were very successful. She has to date, 133 Excellent descendants that carry the Ralma prefix.”

Faith was nominated for Global Cow of the Year in 2009 and her daughter, Ralma Christmas Fudge (Durham daughter), won Global Cow of the Year in 2011. Global Cow of the Year is a cow that produces a number of great offspring in type and production, which members around the world of Holstein International vote on, Mark said.

The Schmitts’ prefix, Ralma, comes from a combination of the names of Mark, Al and their parents, Ralph and Mary Lou. While the farm was an established dairy farm, Mark and Al officially started their registered herd in 1974.

“It’s been 51 years and it is amazing how the dairy cow has improved in type and production over those years,” Mark said.

After high school, Mark attended the University of Minnesota, Waseca for dairy production but remained involved with the farm.

“I came home on all weekends and continued to make the mating decisions while in college,” Mark said. “I had all the semen bought and continued to develop our breeding program while I was away, just had to hire a technician to breed the cow.”

Mark and Al formed an official partnership in 1988 purchasing the herd from their parents.

Austin graduated from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in 2018 and returned to the home farm. He briefly took a job off the farm at a dairy farm in South Dakota to gain a different perspective. He has been back farming with his parents since 2021.

“The life skills that our farm and parents have taught (my siblings and me) over the years is what I am most proud of,” Austin said. “We are all working in agriculture and use those skillsets every day.”

Although the dairy farming chapter is ending at Ralma farm, the farm itself and their cows will continue.

“I am most proud of the kids, not only because they all stepped up and came home to help with the sale but helped us a lot through the years,” Natalie said. “(I am proud) seeing our children work well together and enjoy what they are doing in their own careers.”

Mark agreed.

“I am also very proud of our family,” Mark said. “Over the years with the success of our cow families and the people we have met, we have made many friends. We wanted to work with honest people and to be treated honestly and that has worked very well for us.”