Staying a student of the dairy industry

Like many who have grown up on a farm, you learn quickly to seize an opportunity. Maybe you make a run after a crop late into the night to beat the rain. Maybe you invested in something that will serve generations to follow. If the opportunity is there and you are in the right position to go after it, you do it.

My parents, Mike and Sandi Zirbel, modeled that mindset from the time they bought the farm in 1980 from my grandparents. The 1990s saw a shift from tie stalls to parlors and free stalls. Not only did they modernize the facilities, but they also paved the way to allow for growth. The double-12 parlor built in the early 1990s for 200 cows was completely oversized; however, with an additional three stalls on each side, we were able to grow from 200 cows to 1,100 in the same space.

Today, we are blessed to have the classic “3-legged stool” commanding day-to-day operations. My husband, Kris, manages the dairy with a focus on cows and risk management; my brother, Jordan, brings his strengths in agronomy and mechanics, while I lean into financials and human resources. Our varied specialties keep us balanced.

My parents also continue to play important roles. My mom handles a good amount of bookkeeping, while my dad continues to be the conservationist, always looking at the potential for what we could do with every acre. Jordan’s wife, Alyssa, brings expertise to crop data management, and our son, Owen, plays a critical labor role as he is getting in on more meetings with our farm advisors. We are also blessed to work alongside extended family at DenMar Acres in our custom harvest operations.

With the farm growing and additional financial responsibilities coming in my direction, I felt driven to understand what it all meant. It wasn’t enough to just see how much money was left — if any — at the end of the month. I already had a background in bookkeeping and benefited from the mentorship of our accountant through tax prep and budgeting, but when I saw the opportunity to attend The Financial Literacy for Dairy program, I was intrigued and went after it.

Talk about taking what I was already doing to the next level. It provided clarity that helped me understand the importance of financial strategies rather than just paying the bills and hoping for the best. The multiple-session format gave me the opportunity to go back to the farm and apply what I learned to our books one piece at a time and ask questions in the next session.

Beyond the numbers, the program brought awareness to how quickly the industry was evolving. Our instructors emphasized the idea of being a “top third” farm to remain viable in the decades to come. We learned what lenders look for and how simple metrics don’t tell the whole story. We learned about the uniqueness of ag accounting and the importance of building a team that can bring an outside perspective to what you are doing. Our instructors led us in captivating — albeit borderline geeky — discussions, and the investment in the class is one that has paid dividends. The foundation of Financial Literacy has helped our team evaluate risks and make better decisions about short- and long-term investments.

Avoiding your books if you suspect your numbers are ugly is understandable. However, having a strong financial knowledge base can take you from being fearful to being honest about your situation. With the right team in place, you can have informed conversations, build a solution and execute the plan with confidence.

We know that dairy farming is as challenging as it is rewarding, and those of us who are blessed to do it understand how special it is. Protecting the viability of our farms is key as volatility surrounds us. For our farm, that means staying curious, understanding our numbers, watching what is changing and looking for the next opportunity to take us into the future.

Chelsea Scheider is a fifth-generation farmer at Zirbel Dairy Farms in De Pere, Wisconsin, where her family milks 1,100 cows and plans for future growth.