Lisa Gantner is very involved in the Ozaukee County Farm Bureau. She is a Farm Bureau Institute graduate, serves as the county’s women’s chair, Ag in the Classroom chair and helps with the county’s dairy promotion breakfast on the farm. She also finds time to be a 4-H dairy leader and a venture crew leader for advance outdoor skills.
Lisa farms alongside her husband, Trevor. Together they run 800 acres of corn, soybeans and alfalfa and milk 85 Holsteins in partnership with Trevor’s dad. They raise all the young stock and finish all the steers. Lisa and her husband also cash crop 200 acres of soybeans and corn.
In addition to the dairy farm, Lisa continues to help her parents with their fresh vegetable market business. Utilizing 15 acres, they grow sweet corn, potatoes, squash and a lot of other vegetables. They market their produce locally at five farmers’ markets throughout the week in the summer months.
Lisa is the Herdswoman and the young stock raiser. She takes care of all the newborn calves making sure they get off to the best start possible. She feeds the calves every day and takes care of their vaccination program. Lisa also manages all the record keeping for the calves and cows. She has been working on the breeding program for the heifers and cows through the use of artificial insemination. She learned how to breed cattle while attending UW-Madison Farm and Industry Short Course. Now she breeds all the animals on the farm. The farm was previously bull breed, and she feels this is a way to use her skills to help improve the farm.
You will also see Lisa in a tractor doing spring tillage, driving next to a chopper in a silage truck throughout the summer and hauling a load or two of grain into the coop at harvest time.
Lisa’s hobbies include playing softball on summer league, going to tractor pulls and county fairs with her husband, camping, sitting by bonfires and downhill skiing. Lisa usually has a few woodworking projects going on in the winter too.
1.) How did you get involved with Farm Bureau?
“I feel like I have grown up with and in Farm Bureau my entire life. My dad was always a member and my uncle was a past board member and president. So naturally, when there was something that they were doing, I always got to tag along. If it was working to build the food trailers for fair or working at the food stand, I was there. So when I turned 18, it seemed only fitting to join Farm Bureau. It wasn’t until then that I realized there was so much more to Farm Bureau than what I knew as a kid. I got involved with the YFA program right away and I have attended numerous YFA Conferences. Then in 2009, I was elected on to the county board as the women’s chair.”
2.) What excites you about farming?
“When I started on the farm, everything was bull bred. Then I began breeding the heifers and in the summer of 2013, I have started to see my first offspring’s, the daughter’s freshen and come into the milk herd. I continue to look forward to the next heifer calf that will be born and to improve the genetics on the farm.”
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