Darren Schroeder lived on a farm in Black Earth, Wis., until he was in first grade. Then his family moved to Verona. Five years later, they moved to Lake Mills.

“I decided I wanted to be a farmer when I was 9 years old,” says Schroeder, who has been named a 2022 Master Agriculturist. “But there was no farm for me to take over.”

Getting started

While in high school, Schroeder worked for a nearby dairy farmer, and after graduating from Lake Mills High School in 1980, he bought some cows. He got married and grew his Holstein herd. Then in 1990, he bought a 276-acre dairy farm and moved to Columbus.

“When I came to Columbus, I had 62 Holstein cows and 65 heifers,” Schroeder recalls. “My herd averaged 20,000 pounds of milk per cow in 1990. I raised all my heifers. I freshened the heifers, kept the best ones, and bred the others back and sold them to dairy farmers as springers.”

Schroeder and his wife had three children during the 1990s — Jacob, Cassidy and Ryan. In 2010, the couple divorced.

Schroeder participated in Group 8 of the Wisconsin Rural Leadership Program and went to Turkey in 2000. He also traveled with U.S. Aid to Ukraine to help farmers there.

“When I got back home, I had a whole new appreciation for freedom,” he says.

Schroeder’s nephew farmed with him for a few years until late 2000, when he decided he didn’t want to farm.

“Four months later, I sold the cows,” Schroeder says. “I was milking 90 cows then. When I sold my cows, I didn’t know what I was going to do. The first year after I sold them, I rented out the farm and worked off the farm for a while. Then in 2002, I decided to crop farm.”

Schroeder rented some additional land and worked off the farm to generate more income.

“Then crop prices took off in 2008. I’ve been so blessed,” he says. “My timing has always been impeccable when it comes to farming, but it’s not because of knowledge — I owe it all to luck and persistence.”

Buying land

In 2008, Schroeder bought a 124-acre farm near his home farm in Columbia County. Two years later, he bought another 101 acres. In 2017, he bought a 130-acre farm with a 10-year-old, three-bedroom house and machine shed.

“It worked out great because my oldest son Jake, who is 30 now, started farming with me and he needed a house. So, I moved to the new house and he lives in the house on the main farm.

“In 2020, I bought another 101 acres, and then we rented an additional 500 acres. In January, we added another 180 acres of rented land.”

Altogether, Schroeder owns 720 acres and he and Jake rent 1,200 acres. They also feed out 50 steers.

“We shoot for a 50-50 split of soybeans and corn. We also rent 40 acres of grass hay,” Schroeder says.

“All the farmland I own is located in the town of Columbus,” he adds. Some of their rented land is in Dodge and Dane counties.

“Jake and I are in a joint venture on the farm,” Schroeder explains. “Jake started buying equipment, and we own two grain semitrucks together. In 2020, we created a trucking LLC. We haul all of our own grain and at harvest, we haul grain for a few of our neighbors.”

They also do some custom harvesting for their neighbors.

In addition to farming, Jake works as a custom applicator at Insight FS in nearby Marshall. Jake has one daughter, Gwen, who is 7 years old.

“I’m pretty happy Jake decided to farm with me,” Schroeder says. “I never thought he would be a farmer when he was growing up.”

Schroeder’s daughter Cassidy, 26, graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is a housing case manager in Bellingham, Wash. She is working on her master’s degree. Schroeder’s youngest son, Ryan, 22, is a senior at Winona State University in Winona, Minn.

Since 2016, the Schroeders have been using no-till and minimum till on their farm. They also plant cover crops.

“We seed rye on all our soybean acres in the fall,” Schroeder says. “I’ve been experimenting with it for the past three years.”

Community involvement

Although he keeps busy on the farm, Schroeder is active in several farm organizations. He is currently president of the Columbia County Corn Growers and has served on the organization’s board of directors for the past four years. He is a member of Healthy Waters Healthy Soils in Dodge County, and he is an active member of Dodge County Farm Bureau.

He is also a board member for Golden Sands RCD (Recreation, Conservation and Development), and he served as the Wisconsin Towns Association Columbia County unit chair. He participates in Professional Dairy Producers ACE On-The-Farm Twilight Meetings, which bring together community leaders, local elected officials and dairy farmers to discuss important topics such as water, resource management, transportation and other critical issues.

He is also active in local politics.

“In 2008, my neighbor was town chairman,” Schroeder says. “He asked if I would be on the planning commission — that’s how I got involved. There were five of us on the planning committee. They asked me to do the planning. Then I was asked to be on the county planning committee. In 2010, I became the town planning commissioner, and now, since my neighbor retired, I am Town of Columbus chairman.”

In 2018, Schroeder was elected to the county board of supervisors. He serves on the Agriculture, Extension, and Land and Water Conservation Committee, and the Solid Waste Committee.

“I hate to run out of things to do,” he says.

At 59, Schroeder says he has no plans to retire anytime soon.

“I’m having too much fun to retire,” he says.

2022 Master Agriculturist

Darren Schroeder

Age: 59

Location: Columbus, Columbia County

Farming enterprises: Crops, beef steers, trucking

Size of farm: 720 owned acres, 1,200 rented acres, 50 beef steers

Years farming: 40

Family: Sons Jacob and Ryan, daughter Cassidy, granddaughter Gwen