Building for tomorrow

CHILTON, Wis. — When Kurt and Kory Schneider graduated from high school and left their family’s farm to pursue other careers, it did not take the brothers long to realize they were destined to be dairy farmers.

Responding to a calling  kindled in childhood, it took less than 20 years for the Schneiders to build a modern dairy enterprise from the ground up. Their strong momentum was marked by significant growth milestones and the building of state-of-the-art facilities.

“It was all gas, no brakes,” Kurt said. “There were a lot of people who thought we were going to fail.
They told us, ‘You’re too young, slow down. You’re running faster than you should be.’ But we didn’t want to be doing this when we were 60; we wanted to do it now.”

Kurt and his wife, Tiffany, and Kory and his wife, Fallon, own and operate River’s Edge Dairy LLC near Chilton. The Schneiders milk 3,000 cows on two sites and farm 2,400 acres.

At their newest site purchased in 2019, cows are milked three times a day in a Boumatic 80-stall rotary parlor built in 2024 by Bayland Buildings. The parlor has capacity to milk 4,000 cows and features automation such as a teat prepping system and post-dipping robotics. A new 8-row, tunnel ventilated freestall barn houses 1,400 cows at this location.

“This is not a generational dairy; we are the first generation here,” Kurt said. “Our parents farmed, and our grandparents farmed, but we’re not farming any of their land.”

The Schneiders have come a long way since going out on their own in 2008 with 30 cows in a barn they rented from a neighbor. From there, they leapt forward, fully committed to progress, innovation, expansion.

In 2010, they bought a different neighbor’s farm that included a double-8 parallel parlor and 250 cows. Many improvements to the farm followed.

“Every winter, we built something,” Kurt said. “The first winter, we added onto the barn, the next winter we built a heifer barn, then we built a shop, and after that we built a new freestall barn.”

Kory worked for Keller Inc., and his background in construction and concrete gave the Schneiders an advantage when building their own facilities, as they were able to save money by doing most of the work themselves. From pouring the concrete to welding and painting the steel, the Schneiders are involved in every facet of new construction. They also do the excavation work. The Schneiders did 100% of the work, from start to finish, when building a 32-million-gallon manure pit.

“With Kory’s expertise on building, there’s a lot of sweat equity in this,” Kurt said. “We can build a barn for 30-40 cents on the dollar.”

Kory is in charge of construction management, maintenance and sand separation while Kurt takes care of the books and crops, manages the manure crew, and does maintenance in the shop. Tiffany manages cows and dairy employees. Fallon works off the farm as a CT technologist at Aurora Healthcare. The Schneiders have 55 full-time employees, including their brother, Kyle, who has worked on the farm since 2013, hauling feed and manure, pouring concrete and doing construction.

“We have a good crew underneath us and a lot of people who have stepped up along the way to help,” Tiffany said.

Diversified from the beginning, the Schneiders started a custom manure pumping business in 2008 and now pump 220 million gallons of manure per year.

The Schneiders do their own feed harvesting, milk hauling and manure hauling. Milk is stored in a 40,000-gallon silo, and the Schneiders will be putting up another milk silo next spring.

Believing in transparency, the Schneiders said they look forward to hosting one of Professional Dairy Producers’ Agricultural Community Engagement twilight meetings Aug. 26. Free and open to the public, these meetings feature a farm tour and aim to facilitate open conversations between local elected officials, policymakers, rural and urban Wisconsin residents, dairy producers and their neighbors.

“It’s always important for the community to know what you’re doing — good or bad,” Kurt said.

The Schneiders are in the process of building a new tunnel-ventilated freestall barn measuring 212 feet by 560 feet to hold about 1,200 cows. When it is complete, they will move all milk cows to this location. They plan to build the second half of this barn next year and grow to 3,600 cows.Construction of a feed center at this farm are part of future plans as well.

Motivated to grow rapidly, the Schneider brothers never let anything stand in the way.

“Don’t let anybody tell you no,” Kory said. “If there’s a will, there’s a way. Go for it.”

Kurt agreed.

“Take the risk,” he said. “If there is no risk, there is no reward. If someone tells you that you can’t, push to make it so you can. We’ve had enough of that along the road. We don’t want to take it slow. We also don’t need to be the best; we want to be the most efficient.”

Environmental stewardship is at the heart of the Schneider team, who reclaim around 98% of their sand bedding through a Stjernholm sand separator and truck their manure to BC Organics in Greenleaf to be made into renewable natural gas.

The Schneiders utilize cover crops on nearly half of their acres and practice minimal tillage. They tile fields and do other practices to decrease runoff while being mindful of keeping wells and waterways clean as they strive to nurture healthy soil.

“Our philosophy is to make our fields better than we received them,” Kory said.

Kurt serves as vice president of the Calumet County Ag Stewardship Alliance, helping promote responsible farming practices and strengthening relationships between agriculture and the broader community.

“We do a lot of public outreach so that people understand what we’re doing and what goes into precision agriculture,” Tiffany said.

The Schneiders are always looking for the next opportunity to advance their operation.

“Every day you wake up and challenge yourself, take on something new,” Kurt said. “We accept every challenge along the way because at the end of the day, no matter what the challenge, we’re going to be dairying. Whoever is on this place is going to keep farming, keep pushing forward to produce food for the consumer.”

Kurt and Tiffany have four children — Kendall, Kalvin, Harlin and Mason. Kory and Fallon also have four children — Amelia, Keynan, Kyland and Verena. The Schneiders said they have enjoyed watching the next generation start to work on the farm.

“It’s a very proud moment seeing Amelia or my daughter on the rotary milking cows,” Kurt said. “I can’t wait to see what it looks like with Kory’s kids and my kids if they want to come together and run this dairy someday.”

Energized to accomplish everything they have in mind and more, these passionate dairymen continue to build a successful dairy designed to serve future generations.

“We love doing it,” Kory said. “If our kids end up getting involved, then the sky’s the limit.”