S&S Ag Enterprises Aim For Success, Stewardship For Next Generation

By Karen Lee Special to Agri-View
Thursday, November 20, 2008 7:45 AM CST

The mission statement of S&S Ag Enterprises LLC contains two main elements. First and foremost, to operate as stewards of the land, and secondly to produce healthy, productive-bred heifers for their customers.

This family operation has been farming south of Sturgeon Bay for over 100 years. It is currently owned by the third and fourth generations of the Schmidt family - Adrian (Ace) and Kay Schmidt and their son and daughter-in-law, Randy and Dena Schmidt.

Ace and Kay ran the 70-cow dairy farm until a fire destroyed the barn in October of 1996. After spending a couple months milking at a neighbor’s farm they decided to call it quits. However, shortly thereafter a local dairyman wondering if they would be interested in raising his heifers approached them.

In 1997, they started raising 100 heifers. As more calls kept coming in, Randy and Dena joined the farm in 2001 and S&S Ag Enterprises LLC was formed.

The Schmidts now raise over 4,000 heifers from 11 clients in six different counties and are still receiving calls to take in more animals, emphasizing the need for such a business in Wisconsin.

“When we started raising heifers,” Dena says, “we thought it’d grow to 600 to 700 head, but as our customers grew, we grew with them.”

The farm does all tilling, planting and harvesting of its 3,500 rented and owned acreage. They grow mostly forage for the heifers and some grain for cash sales.

“Feed is our biggest expense,” Randy says. “Feed is sacred and we cannot waste it.”

To monitor shrinkage everything is weighed in prior to storage and weighed out at feeding.

Manure is also weighed at application. The manure application process is monitored to be sure the farm is following its Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plan (CNMP).

S&S Ag Enterprises is the only WPDES permitted farm in Door County. They work closely with the local Soil and Water Conservation Department, the Department of Natural Resources and a crop consultant by the name of Mark Feuerstein, who was a former Cenex/Land O’Lakes agronomist and UW-Extension ag agent specializing in crop and soil science to help with scouting and nutrient management in building their CNMP and pest management programs. They also employ the services of Conestoga-Rovers & Associates, an environmental engineering firm, with all of their building designs and projects.

Every step of their expansion was with concern for the environment. The Schmidts always made sure there was adequate manure and feed storage in place before bringing in more animals.

They’ve added a manure separation system to help improve their farm’s stewardship practices. Manure is pumped through a screwpress separator and the fiber is reused for bedding. The liquid is stored in two lagoons and applied in the spring and fall, according to the CNMP, with a dragline system. The dragline helps in reducing odor, runoff and compaction on the fields, plus it requires less trucking - easing strain on local roads.

To further their respect for the environment, the Schmidts are in the process of adding a methane digester to process the manure. They say they had hoped to put it in this summer, but its been held back in the permitting stage. The digester will help them cut back on odor emissions and reduce the amount of waste materials they are placing back in the environment. Plus, it will allow them to produce enough energy to power 700 to 800 homes. Once the digester is in place, Randy says, the next step will be the consideration of a water purification system to clean the water that is used in crop irrigation.

The Schmidts welcome heifers at 4 months of age from wet calf growers and dairies. All animals have to be BVD tested and are on a strict vaccination protocol before coming to the farm.

S&S Ag Enterprises takes care of breeding, vaccinations, hoof trimming and pregnancy checks. All animals are weighed three to four times to measure growth and are returned to their respective dairies at 60 days prior to calving.

“Animal health is top priority here,” Randy says. “Animals are walked daily checking for changes in health and the ration is checked weekly.”

Animal records are kept on Dairy Comp 305 and can be downloaded back and forth between S&S and their clients. This allows the Schmidts to see records from the first four months of the calf’s life and the dairies can see everything that happened to the animal while it was at the grower. Performance reports are also sent every month as part of the billing process.

Not only does S&S Ag Enterprises fill a need in the state’s dairy industry, it also builds the labor workforce and economy in Door County by paying out over $1 million in wages each year. Aside from family, they employ the equivalent of 20 full-time employees in their heifer and cropping enterprises.

Farm revenues are spent locally at the feed mill, equipment dealer, building contractor, excavation, and in land rent and buying forages from neighbors.

In addition to raising heifers, the Schmidts are partners in a 400-cow dairy seven miles from their farm.

As members of the Wisconsin Dairy Business Association (DBA), Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin (PDPW), Farm Bureau and the Dairy Calf and Heifer Association (formerly known as the Professional Dairy Heifer Growers Association), the Schmidts enjoy the networking opportunities the groups provide. “When you meet with them, they have a different mentality,” Randy says. “They’re all professionally-minded. Everybody’s goal is for everybody to be successful.”

The Schmidts want to be successful and good stewards to the land in order to pass their farming operation to the fifth generation. Their oldest son, Derek Schopf, just began his term at UW-Madison’s Farm and Industry Short Course where he’s studying crop management. He’s already studied computer networking at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College and is helping to build a computer program to track costs and inputs for the farm. Derek also has his spraying license, which he uses for the farm’s crops.

Tanner, who is 14, likes the mechanical operations on the farm and Devin, 10, is probably going to be the heifer manager one day, their parents predict.

“They are a big help in the tractors and in the barns,” Dena says of when the boys have off from school.

With strong minds to manage the farm and the environment, the Schmidts will continue to maintain a business that suits the needs of the industry and their family.

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