Wolf Farms Rely on Family Working Together

By Sarah Watson, Livestock Editor
Friday, January 26, 2007 1:50 PM CST

Looking around the farm office, one could tell family is important to Doug Wolf.

Family photos sit on his desk amongst the papers and they fill the shelf behind his chair. Framing his computer monitor are wallet size pictures of his four grandchildren with the ages printed on the back. Under a nearby table rests a child's size John Deere Gator.

Currently Doug and his son, Shannon, are operating the diversified farm, south of Lancaster.

Growing up on a dairy farm, Doug, is a second-generation farmer.

"My grandfather was a farmer, but it was separate from my dad, but my dad started this operation," he says.

Doug is the youngest of four and is the only one that is farming for an occupation. The farm, that began as a dairy and has expanded into an Angus cow-calf herd, feedlot, farrow to finish, and row crop operation.

"Actually dad was more of a dairy farmer and had a few pigs. We bought a few pigs, and as I came back to the operation we started farrowing. We got rid of the dairy cows," Doug says.

He attended UW-Platteville where he received his bachelor's degree in agriculture economics.

Doug then moved himself and his family to Madison as he pursued and received his master's degree in animal Science at UW-Madison in 1986 when he was 30 years old.

Before returning to school, Doug worked on the farm for seven years and married, his wife Kris, and had two children, Shannon, 29 and Megan, 26.

Kris currently works at Platteville Medical Clinic as a nurse.

Megan is married and has two daughters, Makenna, 3, and Malaina, 7 months. She is currently employed at the Platteville Hospital as the foundation director.

After receiving his masters, Doug taught at UW-Platteville in the agriculture industries department.

"I taught anything no one else would teach," he says with a laugh.

After having a job off the farm, he came back to the operation.

"I never sold out of the farm. I just hired someone to work while I was gone with the idea I was going to get a job off the farm and do something else, but nothing else presented itself at that time, so I came back and things got better on the farm. Interest rates came down and I've been here ever since," he says.

Doug has watched the farm grow into an 850-sow farrow to finish operation, a 200 head purebred Angus cow-calf operation, a feedlot operation, along with growing 1,200 acres of row crops and alfalfa.

"Before I got out of high school we did everything with a scoop shovel. When I left the first thing dad did was sell the dairy cows and buy a skid loader," he says.

The skid loader was a good investment as the farm has continuously grown.

"When I first started I bought, I think, 20 bred gilts and turned them out on pasture," Doug says. "We did everything by hand and we've just grown."

The beef operation was added when Doug rented a farm on halves with another area farmer.

"He had cows and I've just had them ever since," he says. Doug estimates he had around 100 cows when he started.

"Most of our farm's growth has been through renting a farm, or going in on halves with a farmer," he explains. "That's what he had and so we just kind of grew with what was given to us to grow, until recently when we started building our own facilities."

Shannon is now involved and helping to grow and maintain the current operation.

"Shannon is a full partner now. He bought in last year," Doug says.

Like his dad, Shannon went to school in hopes of finding an off-farm job since hog farming did not look too profitable at the time.

"When I was a sophomore in high school that's when I really got interested in hogs," Shannon says.

He attended North East Iowa Community College in the farm management program and graduated in 1998.

Following his graduation and just as he was itching to get into the hog business, the hog prices dropped.

Instead of coming back to the farm he then attended UW-Platteville and received his bachelor's degree in agriculture business in 2001.

"I planned on getting a job after graduation," he says. "But nothing ever branched out."

In December of 2002 Shannon married his wife, Melissa and they now have two sons, Mitchel, 2, and Nolan, 3 months. Melissa works as a secretary for an insurance company.

The grain facilities, farrowing units and beef operations are located on separate farms.

The sow unit is a dairy barn that was remodeled in 1993 and is located a mile from the office and grain facilities.

The Wolf's mill around 200,000 bushels of corn per year for feed. That breaks down into 150 tons of feed used per week. The farm contracts neighbors to supply the feed.

The farm has six employees. Three cover the farrowing unit, one each for the nursery and feed grinding, cattle feedlot, and cow herd, and they all do a great job, says Doug.

"We don't have to worry about any of them," Shannon adds.

Doug takes care of the office work and the finishing end of the hogs.

Shannon oversees the day-to-day operations and "fixes the broken stuff," he says.

Both Shannon and Doug have been extremely involved in representing and promoting the pork industry.

Shannon was elected to the Wisconsin Pork Association (WPA) board of directors and is serving as president of the Grant County Pork Producers.

Shannon has also taken part in the Operation Main Street training offered by WPA and the National Pork Board.

"I give presentations at local clubs like Lions Club, Kiwanis and I've done it for the Jaycees as well," he says. "It's all set up through the National Pork Board."

Shannon was also part of the Pork Leadership Academy, a nationwide, yearlong training for younger pork producers about the Pork Checkoff. Shannon was one of 23 participants and the only participant from Wisconsin.

"You go to six or seven places and they teach you what they're doing with the checkoff dollars," he explains. "They show you different markets."

The Checkoff provides initial leadership training, as well as long-term support in preparing presentations and interviews, and focuses on training a spokesperson that relate the accomplishments of the pork industry to the public.

The highlight of his training was when he visited Mexico City, where he learned about alternative cuts of meat and how the checkoff was helping to market and promote these non-traditional cuts.

"The purpose of the academy is to get board members to become active in your state," he explains.

"It trains new leadership for the future," Doug adds. "They understand what the pork checkoff is all about and then they can do the Operation Main Streets."

On the local level Shannon has helped promote pork at local grocery stores and at football games.

Shannon had a great role model in Doug when it comes to being involved with state and national organizations.

Doug still works with the WPA as an ex officio and has increased his involvement on the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) as he serves on multiple committees.

"I'm on the legislative side," Doug explains. "We try to work on legislative issues that support pork production."

The NPPC board helps to develop and increase trade with other countries on behalf of the pork producers and pork industry.

"Being on the WPA years ago I got to go to the national events and forums. I got interested in what was going on. I got to know several people and got on several committees," he says.

In 2001, Doug was on a committee of 30 people that helped to develop the NPPC when it was separated from the Pork Board.

"A group of us got together and reorganized the NPPC so it would stay together," he says.

Doug is also a member of the 2007 Farm Bill Taskforce and the NPPC Environmental Committee.

Through the board, Doug travels about once a month and maybe twice a month to participate on these committees.

"It's a real time commitment," he says. "And I couldn't do it if I didn't have Shannon."

On the farm bill taskforce, Doug says the group is concentrating on the energy situation and the price of corn as a competitive feed source. The taskforce is also looking at animal rights issues and environmental issues and conservation issues.

On the environmental committee, the group looks at all environmental issues in hog production.

"We work on nutrient management concerns, phosphorus run-off and anything that has to do with the environment. We try to get the science based aspects to it," Doug says.

With the traveling required for the NPPC and the work on the farm, Doug doesn't have much free time left over.

He enjoys spending time with his four grandchildren all under the age of 3.

"They keep me busy. That's why we don't do anything, we've got grandchildren," he says, glancing over toward their pictures. "We are with them every chance we get. While I can and they still like me."

Doug credits his wife for keeping up with his travels and helping with the field work.

"She does a lot," he says. "Over the years when the kids were small she'd work, come home, got the kids and load them on the tractor and go out and help in the fields. She's worked awful hard."

Doug holds season tickets to the Wisconsin Badger football games and he and Shannon take an annual elk hunting trip to Colorado every year.

"But farming, this is what we like," Doug says.

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