Mark & Beth Heinze
Mark grew up working side by side with his parents and grandpa on this very farm. When he was young Mark enjoyed showing dairy cattle from the farm at the and was a successful 4-H dairy judge, placing well in state and national judging contests. He continued the family tradition when he attended UW Madison to pursue a degree in Dairy Science. While a student at UW, Mark was active in the dairy club, competed on the dairy judging team, was noble ruler of the AGR fraternity, and completed an internship on a dairy in Minnesota.
Upon returning to the family farm in the mid 2000’s, Mark took over the management of the dairy herd and began to purchase his own cattle to add to the herd. He continued to be involved with dairy judging, serving as the coach for the UW Madison Shortcourse Dairy Judging Team for a few years and also as a coach for the Columbia County 4-H Dairy Judging team, which he continues to do today. An avid reader, Mark became a fan of the works of Allan Savory and Joel Salatin and is helping to lead the farm into more holistic management practices as we work towards a diversified and sustainable future.
Beth grew up working on her grandparents dairy farm in south central Michigan. An active 4-H member she showed and judged dairy cattle, and showed beef, sheep, and hogs at the county fair and always had some sort of craft/sewing/food project at the fair as well. Beth attended Michigan State University where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Animal Science. While at university Beth served as president of the dairy club, was a member of the meats judging and dairy judging teams, and worked on dairies in Ireland and California. After working for a few years in the field of dairy genetics, Beth worked for the University of Wisconsin Extension as the state dairy youth specialist for several years. She left her career with extension allow more time to focus on her family and the farm. She now works part time at Rural Mutual Insurance in Portage and with Mark is committed to making this family farm a sustainable for generations to come.
Tom & Mary Heinze
Tom is the 5th generation Heinze to own this farm that he grew up working on with his siblings, parents, and grandparents. He attended the University of Wisconsin Madison where he met his wife Mary who was also a student at the university. After graduating with a degree in agriculture he took a sales job with Pride Seed and he and Mary lived and worked in Iowa, Northwest WI, and Southeast WI. After being away from the farm for over ten years they came back to the farm in 1981 to take over from Tom’s father Leon.
Mary grew up in Illinois, Connecticut, and finally Kirkwood, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. Before meeting Tom she had never even been on a farm before! Little did she ever know that she would one day do nearly every job on the farm from milking cows, feeding calves, and cutting lots of hay in a big tractor. Mary is also an accomplished watercolor artist, having sold paintings and prints all over the world.
Tom and Mary are still both highly involved in our farm. Tom is in charge of overseeing the grain crops, feeding cows without fail every morning, and overseeing the work done in the shop. Mary feeds calves every morning, feeds the help most every noon, and several days a week watches her four young grandsons at her house while their parents are at work.