Editor’s note: This article is part of a series featuring women members of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation.
CLINTONVILLE, Wis. – One could say Kellie Zahn juggles a lot of balls. She works full-time as an agriculture agent for the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, a Mohican Indian tribe in Bowler, Wisconsin. She’s the agronomist for her family’s 1,000-acre farm near Clintonville. And she’s been a board member of the Shawano County Farm Bureau for the past four years. But her educational background, participation in the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation’s Leadership Institute and a willingness to step outside her comfort zone help her juggle those daily challenges.
Zahn, nee Behnke, was raised on the Clintonville-area dairy farm owned by her parents, Doug and Mary Behnke. As a youngster she fed calves, cleaned pens and did other chores, she said. Those jobs helped her learn about taking responsibility.
After graduating from high school she attended the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. She earned in 2011 a bachelor’s degree in agricultural business with an animal-science minor. She then worked for about five years as an agronomist. But demanding seasonal-work schedules and time spent on the road as an agronomist conflicted with her work on the family farm, she said.
An opportunity appeared in fall 2016 she couldn’t refuse. It involved building from the beginning a program at the Stockbridge-Munsee Community. As an agriculture agent she would be managing gardens as well as teaching classes about practices such as composting, starting plants, alternative weed control and more.
Since joining the community she has helped establish a Community Supported Agriculture operation, and has expanded a demonstration farm from 1 to 3 acres. She and the community plan to rotationally graze chickens. She works with a few-part time employees and a summer intern.
“We grow about 30 different types of vegetables,” she said. “This is…
The rudder of the Mohican was turned into a coffee table; the propeller shaft is still part of a lawn roller; and the wheel now decorates “someone’s” wall. The lake north of Three Mile was dragged sometime in the late 30s or early 40s, and most of the remains of the Mohican were removed from the bottom. But two other steamers, the Natty Bumppo and the Deerslayer, are supposedly still out there somewhere.
