Waupaca County farmers named Farming for the Future Award finalist

Heather Graves

Staff

September 2, 2024

FREMONT – As a fifth-generation farmer, Jake Hoewisch said he has a responsibility to not only carry on the legacy passed down to him, but to position the farm for future generations.

“I have four generations before me that have blood, sweat and tears in this,” he said. “I have a responsibility to uphold to keep the farm in good shape to pass it on to the next generation.”

For as long as he can remember, Hoewisch said he’s wanted to be a farmer.

“It made a lot of decisions throughout my life easier than some people,” he said.

Hoewisch – the oldest of four – said his parents recognized early on that he aspired to be the next generation to take over the farm.

“My three other siblings didn’t show as much interest as I did,” he said. “Obviously, we all worked on the farm growing up, but I was the one who had to be dragged back into the house to eat and go to sleep.”

Hoewisch said when he was in fourth grade, his dad and uncle combined their dairy herds, built a freestall barn and milking parlor and created Hoewisch Homestead Dairy LLC (E8411 State Road 96).

“My parents decided then to homeschool me – my mom was a schoolteacher by trade,” he said. “They decided that my interests at home were going to be too much to overcome by sending me to school. They made the same decision in eighth grade.”

Those decisions, Hoewisch said, gave him an opportunity to be involved in everything that was happening on his family’s farm.

“That meant a lot to me,” he said.

Constant improvement

The life of a farmer, Hoewisch said, is accompanied by the constant improvement of and reinvestment in farm facilities.

One example of this, he said, is the heifer barn – which was built in 2008.

“That was a dream of my father’s,” he said. “They always raised the replacement heifers in facilities that were designed for hogs. That was always a Saturday morning chore – pitch out the hog barns, which were the heifer-raising facilities. It didn’t have good ventilation, couldn’t get a skid steer in – all these high-labor tasks.”

Hoewisch said building the heifer barn significantly decreased the farm’s heifer death loss, which impacts the bottom line.

Another example, Hoewisch said, is the calf barn.

“I grew up with calf hutches – year round in the snow, feeding them in the dark in the morning and at night,” he said. “In 2013, we built a calf barn. Not only did we gain ease for the person feeding them, we gained a stop where we could put a pasteurizer.”

In 2015, Hoewisch said they added a three-million-gallon manure storage and added on to the end of the barn with a manure auger to move manure in the winter more efficiently into the lagoon.

“We executed that channel and did a bunch of things there that made our lives quite a bit easier,” he said.

Every improvement, Hoewisch said, aims to gain efficiency from a cow standpoint and the human standpoint.

“We can do it with fewer people, or we can do it quicker – always keeping one of those things in mind,” he said.

On the farm, Hoewisch said they milk 140 cows – a number that hasn’t changed much since his father and uncle merged their herds.

Instead of growing the herd, he said they decided to find niche markets to get involved in.

“We took about 30% of our dairy herd and bred them into a beef breed, which resulted in the farm’s farm-to-table marketing,” he said. “We started that in 2018.”

At the same time, Hoewisch said they transitioned the herd to A2/A2 status.

“We started this process maybe 15 years ago, but accelerated it when we started breeding the bottom third of the herd – and by bottom third I mean if you have the A1 gene in your DNA then you are going to be bred to beef because I want to ensure that I’m not going to have any heifer calves that are Holstein and have the A1 gene.”

The transition process, Hoewisch said, took about four years.

“We’re shipping about two- to four-days worth of milk a month to a processor that was looking for A2/A2 milk to make into cheese and distribute from there,” he said. “So, that’s something that has grown in the past year.”

When the farm’s dragline manure spreading equipment needed an upgrade in 2020, Hoewisch said the decision was made to begin offering custom dragline manure application services for area farms.

“Now we are servicing five or six farms in the area, moving 25 million pounds of manure a year,” he said.

During that same timeframe, Hoewisch said the farm started offering hay baling services as well.

“One-hundred percent of our feed at the time was processed by a custom harvester,” he said. “When we looked at the numbers, it made sense to buy a baler and do the majority of our hay processing with the baler.”

Purchasing the baler, Hoewisch said, also provided an opportunity to offer baling services to other farmers.

“Part of justifying the cost of owning a baler was offering custom baling as well,” he said. “We service probably 20-25 customers within a 50-mile radius of the farm.”

When adding to the farm – whether it is equipment, services or animals – Hoewisch said it is done strategically.

“We never want to get any bigger than what our family can handle alone,” he said. “We’ve never wanted to be strapped to leaning on too much outside help.”

In the larger operations, Hoewisch said it is sometimes hard for the younger generation to help out.

“We wanted to stay small enough so that my six year old can be out feeding calves every day with my wife and can almost do everything herself,” he said. “We felt this was an easier way to bring in the next generation successfully.”

Hoewisch said there is definitely a need and place for larger operations, but for “us, smaller was the way to go.”

Recent upgrades

Last July, Hoewisch said a fire destroyed one of their barns – which housed the farm-to-table beef cattle and dry brown bales of wheat straw.

The fire, he said, prompted the construction of a new barn, similar to the heifer facility built in 2008.

“The ventilation is good and it’s easy for us to clean – super efficient,” he said.

A maintenance shop is another relatively new addition to the farm.

“We haven’t ever had anywhere to work on equipment,” he said. “We’ve always worked on things in the third stall of an attached garage. So we built a much-needed area to fix equipment.”

As the farm’s custom business grows, Hoewisch said they recognized “you can’t have breakdowns when the weather is good and the windows are so tight – you have to be able to service your customers.”

“We’ve taken it upon ourselves to have an area where we can maintain all of our equipment,” he said.

The capabilities a drone could bring to the operation, Hoewisch said, is something they continue to research.

“We’re still trying to keep our options open and trying to figure out how exactly that will fit in,” he said.

Within the next 10 years, Hoewisch said they would like to open a retail store that offers dairy and beef products.

“To accomplish that, we would hire out the processing to some of these smaller creameries that have been built (in the area) in the last five years that are looking to build their capacity,” he said. “We would work hand in hand with them.”

What that looks like and when that happens, Hoewisch said, would likely be “something the next generation would be signing on the line for.”

“That is the direction I think we are going to have to go,” he said. “We’re going to have to do some direct marketing for the dairy products, because of the margins that continue to get smaller.”

Importance of carrying on a legacy

Hoewisch said his parents often stressed the importance of finding a passion in life.

“They were big on us finding our passions,” he said. “If you could get paid for doing your passion every single day – that’s where you want to be. That’s where true happiness lives. That is how we were raised.”

Now, as Hoewisch carries on the legacy of many generations, he said he, too, hopes to pass on that vision to his own children – two young daughters and another on the way.

“For me, it’s about giving the next generation that opportunity,” he said. “If they have the passion, they can feel that sense of accomplishment. They can feel that reward of being able to supply milk, beef, corn, soybeans – whatever direction they take – to others.”

Looking at the big picture, Hoewisch said, “you are feeding the world.”

“You’re in the 1% or 2% of the world that feeds the rest,” he said. “It’s not about having a big ego – it’s more about you have a job to do and that job is your passion.”

Nowadays, getting into the farming industry without a generational connection, Hoewisch said, is “nearly impossible.”

“So, setting (my kids) up for success is the goal,” he said.

In his blood

Hoewisch said his wife, Jennifer, tells him “I work all the time.”

“To me, it isn’t work,” he said. “Day in and day out, I am doing what I love – following my passion.”

The hardest part of being a farmer, Hoewisch said, is balancing the economics.

“The agriculture industry is a tight-margin industry,” he said. “You feel the pressure of not being able to make a mistake or always needing to make the right decision.”

Hoewisch said he also sees the impacts of the decisions that were made in previous generations.

“My dad’s generation or the generation before that – you look at some of the decisions that were made, and they weren’t necessarily bad, but if we made that decision now (and messed up) there is a chance we could be out of business,” he said. “So, there is always that weight of making the right decision. And most of the time, it is ‘what is the financial benefit or consequence of the decision?’”

Hoewisch said nearly 100% of the decisions made on the farm go through those metrics – “what is the return on investment?”

“I like that aspect because it really makes you think about what you are doing before you do it,” he said. “But in the same aspect, it takes a lot of work – a lot of pushing pencil to paper and proving to yourself that what we put on paper actually did happen.”

Hoewisch said though the physical aspects of farming are difficult at times – “there are long days, long nights, balancing duties with family time,” it’s easier than the “weight, responsibility you feel” of the farm’s success or failure.

“I don’t want any money in my bank account when I die,” he said. “But if my children can take this farm over (as the next generation), that is worth every piece of energy exerted.”

Recognition

Being of German descent, Hoewisch said he’s stubborn, but he doesn’t boast.

“It’s a heritage that is normally pretty quiet,” he said. “I think that’s also the stereotype of a lot of farmers.”

To highlight some of the farmers excelling in the industry, each year, the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation’s (WFBF) Young Farmer and Agriculturist (YFA) names four finalists for its Farming for the Future Award.

The award recognizes YFA members who excel in their farm involvement, future goals, leadership abilities and participation in Farm Bureau and other civic and service organizations.

Jake Hoewisch said he and Jennifer submitted Hoewisch Homestead Dairy for the award, not because of the award itself, but for the camaraderie the process provides.

“It’s a Farmer of the Future award,” he said. “So there’s going to be other farmers that are elite (in their area of focus) that we can rub shoulders with them. We can become friends with them. This is only going to help our network grow. That’s more of the driving force for us, than ‘hey, we got an award.’”

Hoewisch said it has always been important for Hoewisch Homestead Dairy to be on the leading edge of the industry.

“In order to accomplish that, you have to be in a network of people that are thinking the same way as you and are trying to do the same things you are,” he said. 

The awards, Hoewisch said, also help raise awareness of the industry – “there are always things happening in agriculture.”

“There is an awesome next generation in the works because the Baby Boomers are transitioning out,” he said.

Hoewisch said he recognizes there is a lot of skepticism from the public in the industry as the number of farms continues to dwindle – “but we’ve got to remember that the next generation is as equipped – if not more equipped – has all the technology at their fingertips and are ready to utilize it.”

“It’s important to bring back assurance to the person that realizes that farmer numbers are going down – showing them they don’t have to be alarmed, we’re in good hands,” he said. “I think this (type of award) helps highlight some of that.”

Jake and Jennifer Hoewisch are one of the finalists this year. 

Other finalists include: Jacob and Eliza Bobolz (Rock County); Tiffany Kohlmann (Manitowoc County); and Josh and Kristen Joseph (Richland County).

A winner will be announced at the 2024 WFBF Annual Meeting and YFA Conference in early December.