JJ and his siblings own Pagel’s Ponderosa in Kewaunee County where they currently milk 5,500 cows, but it definitely did not start off that way.
In 1946 when Pagel’s grandpa Carl returned home from WWII, he and his wife Garnet borrowed some money from a neighbor to purchase the initial farm, which is the land the current dairy sits on today. At that time, the couple had eight cows, some chickens, and some pigs. Fast-forwarding to 1980 when the farm grew to 65 cows, JJ’s dad John bought the farm from his parents. As time went on the dairy expanded, and in 2018 JJ, his brother, and his sister took over the farm.
JJ explained that the plan may not have always been to grow to the size that they’re at today, but they had to in order to effectively make a living with multiple families involved in the business. He talked about how as the dairy grew, his father wanted to make sure there was a spot for all four of his children to come back to the farm if they chose to do so. “As we went on, our farm family grew because our people that work here are like family to us. So then we just kind of expanded our farm family,” he said.
As a dairy milking over 5,000 animals, some tend to throw around the term “factory farm” to describe the business and that’s just not true. “People that compare larger dairies to factory farms, we invite them in for tours. Before COVID we were touring about 10,000 a year,” Pagel said. “We love people to come in and see what they can do here.” He explained how they may be a large dairy, but family is still a very important aspect to them. For example, the farm employs some second and third-generation families and in the past has even had a grandfather, father, and son working on the farm at the same time. Family isn’t lost on the dairy.
No matter what the size of the farm, there are a lot of ups and downs in the industry, it simply comes with the territory. “It’s one of the few professions where we can’t control what we sell our product for. People that make products, they can put it out on the shelf and they can raise the price and kind of price it how they would like,” he said. “Where here, we’re told what we’re going to get paid every month. So, it’s a tough industry to get into, but it’s a labor of love. When you love working with cows and you love what you do, you’re really not working.”
Looking to the future generation of farmers, Pagel’s advice is to join an agriculture organization such as 4-H or FFA to be surrounded by the ag community. He mentioned how modern agriculture is relying more and more on technology and it’s only going to become more of a necessity as time goes on. The technology side is a great way for the younger generation interested in agriculture to get their foot in the door. “The other thing is, go stop at a local dairy. Offer to see if they need help,” he suggests. “There’s a lot of opportunities out there and all people have to do is ask.”
The same goes for those with questions about the dairy industry. “We like to educate people and we like to tell them where their food comes from,” he explained. “We advocate out there and we’d like people to, if they don’t know, stop in and talk to your local dairy farmer.” Pagel said there are a lot of pretty interesting things that happen on a farm that the typical person would never know about unless they ask because the majority of people nowadays have no ties to the ag community.
To hear the full interview, check out the agriculture podcast page.
