Veteran continues to milk cows

ALMA CENTER, Wis. — Fifty-five years ago, Oz Schnick returned home from France after serving a 30-month tour of duty in the 553rd Engineer Battalion of the U.S. Army. He made a home near the farm on which he grew up near Alma Center and started an organic dairy farm. He and his wife, Diane, and grandchildren, Deana and AJ, milk 31 cows in a tiestall barn at DIOZ Dairy.

Schnick joined the army in 1964 as an enlisted soldier. When France pulled out of NATO in 1966, he was sent to France to move equipment to Germany. As a heavy equipment operator, his experience growing up on Irvin and Babe Schnick’s dairy farm paid dividends. He earned a safe driving award during his time in France, driving over 10,000 miles accident-free.

“We didn’t have a lot going on over there,” Schnick said. “But, they always needed a truck or trailer or some piece of equipment. Which was good because I was always busy when I was there.”

Staying busy was the name of the game, and something his farming background helped him thrive in. When there was not as much going on, the Wisconsinite liked to keep people on their toes.

“I remember one time, I got into a disagreement with someone and my sergeant wasn’t too happy with me,” Schnick said. “He said to me, ‘You farmers don’t know what to do with yourselves (without chores) after 5 o’clock.’ He sent me to get some dirt and fill up some low spots in the yard. That wasn’t too bad.”

When Schnick returned home in 1967, he picked up odd jobs around Alma Center before his dad asked him to return to the home farm. He milked there for three years before a place about a half mile down the road went up for sale.

In 1970, Schnick purchased his current property and started fixing it up. He made the old house more comfortable and then broke ground for a new one in 1982. The home where he laid 3,000 blocks created the foundation for a new life.

Over the next 20 years, Schnick continued to make upgrades to his farm.

“We’ve made so many improvements on the farm,” Diane said. “We’ve added a freestall barn, and put in a manure system. But, the gravity flow system we installed was so important.”

With the new system in place, Oz made the call to double the size of their herd. 

“Oz was out doing some field work one day, and I brought him lunch,” Diane said. “He told me, ‘We’re going up to 80 cows’ and my immediate thought was that he’d been out in the sun too long.”

Diane and Oz milked 80 cows, switching two groups of 40 for the next 10 years before bringing their herd back to 35. The smaller herd proved more manageable for Oz, especially after a routine procedure led to major complications. 

Two days after Schnick had a biopsy last fall, he could not regulate his body temperature, and his strength was disappearing. After a fall in the yard, Schnick realized it was time to get help.

Over the next 24 hours, the Schnicks were in three different hospitals. After getting settled in Eau Claire, it was discovered that Oz was septic from his prior surgery. Through the testing, the doctors also discovered that he needed to have a three-way bypass.

“They got me with an infectious disease expert and I was on antibiotics in the hospital for a month,” Schnick said. “For a month after I was released, Diane had to hook up an antibiotic to that port to keep me going.”

Even with the ability to administer an antibiotic at home, the Schnicks had minor setbacks and were back in the hospital several times over the next six months to make sure everything was running as it should.

With Oz unable to make the walk down to the barn to milk cows, a walk he made an estimated 37,000 times, the work fell on his support system. Diane, along with the help of their long-time hired man, Dustin Kolve, shouldered the responsibility of the farm.

“Dustin was the saving grace during that time,” Diane said. “I leaned on him a lot and would he not have been as gracious as he was, we wouldn’t still be milking today.”

Kolve took over the morning milkings, milking every day from November until Oz was ready to return in May. In the evening, their grandson, Austen, took on some of the milking responsibilities before their other grandsons, Dalton and Dillon, took over the shift. The Schnicks were back milking in May, but laboring through fatigue was a consistent issue for the recovering Oz.

After school was finished in May, Deana and AJ, who the Schnicks have adopted and have guardianship over, took on the challenge of the farm. Deana, who just graduated from high school, handled the evening milkings, with the younger AJ taking over in the morning. This allowed Diane and Oz to concentrate on the fieldwork and trust the herd would be taken care of.

“I can’t thank everyone enough for helping us as they did during that time,” Diane said. “Dustin, Austen, Dalton, Dillon, Deana, AJ, Neveah and Deagan, I just can’t say thank you enough for what they did for us.”

Oz echoed a similar sentiment.

“When you face the kind of adversity we have, it’s really touching to see who is in your corner,” Oz said. “Those kids saved our cows.”

Deana and AJ continue to help on the farm, with Deana handling the majority of the milking with AJ back in school. Oz is still recovering from his medical bouts from a year ago, but with the help of his adopted children, a loyal friend and the love of his life, DIOZ Dairy continues to put the milkers on.