SFA Welcomes Derek Schmitz

We are excited to have dairy grazier Derek Schmitz join us as our Minnesota Dairy Initiative (MDI) coordinator!

Derek farms near Cold Spring with his wife Taylor and two (soon to be three) children. They milk 70 grass-based dairy cows, raise hair sheep, custom graze, and direct market beef. You may have been to their farm in the last few years; Derek is a Mentor Grazier in the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program, and is a Soil Health Academy and DGA pasture walk host.

Derek is passionate about what grass-based livestock can accomplish when regenerative principles are appropriately and intentionally applied to our resources. “I really look forward to sharing my learned experiences with others and to helping fellow farmers improve their operations with regenerative solutions to their problems,” he shared.

Welcome, Derek! If you’d like to connect, you can reach Derek at derek@sfa-mn.org.