Farmers in spotlight: Schwoeppe Dairy Farm featured at fair

INDIANAPOLIS — During each day of the 2019 Indiana State Fair, a different Hoosier farm was recognized through the Corteva Agriscience Featured Farmer program.

The farmers that were featured ranged from livestock and grain farmers to duck and tilapia farmers.

One of the farms that was featured was Sam and Darren Schwoeppe’s Schwoeppe Dairy Farm in Dubois County.

“We run a fifth-generation dairy farm that is all family operated,” said Sam Schwoeppe, adding that her sons, Wyatt and Ethan, currently run it.

Schwoeppe said that their dairy farm milks about 100 registered Holstein and Brown Swiss cows twice a day.

“Our focus is on raising high-quality forage, and everything grown on the farm is fed to our cows,” Schwoeppe said.

Schwoeppe said that all their milk goes to Prairie Farms and travels about eight miles from their farm to get to the plant.

“We are unique with our family operation we have, because there are three generations that work together on the farm every day,” Schwoeppe said, adding that Darren and Darren’s mom, Valeria, work alongside Ethan and Wyatt on the dairy.

Besides helping on the family dairy, Schwoeppe also serves as the dairy manager at Feeding America, which has 200 foodbanks and 66,000 agency partners.

“It is my job to see that kids have milk in their cereal every morning,” Schwoeppe said, adding that she works closely with trade associations, growers and food banks to develop relationships and help increase nutrition served to the organization’s clients through the protein and nutrients found in milk.