Team Meyer
The acronym – TEAM – Together Everyone Achieves More – has long been applied to the world of sports and athletics, from little leagues to big leagues. This acronym can also be applied to the world of farming; and to all types of crop and livestock farms, small to large.
This makes Linda & Steve Meyer co-captains of Team Meyer, a family dairy farm in Westby, WI.
They first met as young teenagers, living with their families in Waukon, Iowa (Northeast corner of the state); where, fate would have it, they happened to be working on the same local farm. This friendship as working-mates grew into a deeper friendship as classmates in high school; where, you guessed it, they became high school sweethearts. They became the ultimate teammates, as husband and wife, in 1981.
Shortly thereafter, they followed Steve’s Dad to Westby, WI, where his Dad had purchased a dairy farm. They both worked on that farm, and other nearby dairy farms, and started their family of younger-Meyer teammates (more on them below). Then, in 2004, they purchased the family dairy farm from Steve’s Dad.
Today; the farm totals 130 acres, 85 of which are tillable; and they milk 65 head of Holstein dairy cows. As teammates, Steve and Linda handle all daily farm chores; milking the cows twice a day, animal nutrition and animal health, annual planting and harvesting of feed-crops, maintaining equipment and facilities. As co-captains, Steve handles most of the major equipment, facility, and animal matters; and Linda helps with each of those, and also manages administrative and financial aspects of overall farm operations. Linda also works each weekday in town at the Westby Day Care & Learning Center; where she applies her team leadership skills, well-earned, as a Mother and Grandmother.
Team Meyer includes three children; and, for now, five grandchildren. Oldest daughter, Jennifer, is married and lives nearby in Westby with grandkids Hunter (age 13), Morgan (age 10), and Elizabeth (age 8). Daughter, Becky, also lives nearby in Cashton, WI, with grandkids Makena (age 9) and Sawyer (age 7); seen in the nearby photos. Son, Brice, recently moved to Omaha, NE; where he manages the local locations of a branded national chain of physical fitness centers.
The kids each grew up helping as Team Meyer teammates on the home dairy farm and other farms; along with 4H, school, sports, and community activities. The grandkids are now learning to be part of the team. There is time for future captains of the team to be determined.
Linda and Steve will each say that they were “born to farm” and are the 4th to 5th generations of their respective families to do so in the USA. After more than 35 years of marriage, and many more years after first meeting on that farm in Iowa; it’s clear that they were also “born to be teammates and co-captains” of Team Meyer; a family dairy farm in Westby, WI, and patron-member-owners of Westby Cooperative Creamery.
Please remember; when you take home country goodness from the local family dairy farms of Westby Cooperative Creamery, you take home country goodness from the Meyer Family — and for that, we all say thank you!
