Schilling Brothers Dairy Farm, located at 1345 Ebenezer Road, between Fennimore and Montfort, is this year’s host for the 2025 Grant County Dairy Breakfast on Sunday, June 8.
Schilling Brothers Land LLC/Schilling Farms LLC, is a dairy and cropping operation, family-owned by Andy and Sarah Schilling and Brian and Bridget Schilling.
Brothers Andy and Brian are the third generation of their family to farm, with the original family farm located near Darlington.
They milk 2,200 cows and farm 4,800 acres, with Brian managing the dairy aspect and Andy the cropland that produces corn, beans, alfalfa, and wheat.
The Schilling Brothers began their farming careers right out of high school on the Darlington area family farm, with hopes to expand that farm.
But when Steve and Dolores Bollant put their fully operational 1,600 cow dairy facility up for auction in October 2021, “a great opportunity to expand,” as Brian put it, came up potentially.
Ironically, the brothers almost didn’t even attend the auction, but they were glad they did as they ended up as new owners at the end of that October day.
After a little remodeling the Schillings started milking at the Ebenezer Road location in January 2022.
“We’ve been welcomed to the area with open arms. It’s been a good transition,” Brian stated.
Brian and his family moved from Darlington to the area, with two of his children attending Iowa-Grant Schools.
The Schillings still operate the original family farm near Darlington. “We milk at both sites,” Brian explained. “We have 500 milking cows back there, and most of our wet calves are there.”
Although the dairy farm has “brothers” in the title, it is a family operated farm.
Sarah works with payroll/bookkeeping and serves as calf manager, while Bridget handles human resources/public relations.
And six of the Schilling brothers’ eight children are also involved with the farm’s operations.
Andy and Sarah have Bailey, 23, Kelsey, 21, Carter. 18, and Kamron, 17, while Brian and Bridget have children Lexi, 23, Kylie, 21, Jax, 15, and Ever, 14.
In fact, it was the children’s desire to be part of the farm as the reason for the expansion from the Darlington farm, according to Andy.
“The expansion was for the next generation,” Andy explained. “We knew some of our children wanted to come back and farm, that wouldn’t have been feasible just on the Darlington farm.”
And although he’s “semi-retired,” Andy and Brian’s father, Bill, “still likes to stay involved,” they both said.
“He comes down during the summer. He grew up and stayed working on the family farm, so he likes keeping his involvement in it,” they both explained.
All together, the Schilling family dairy farm is known for their high milk quality, with a somatic cell count, a crucial indicator of milk quality, average of 55,000 and a pregnancy rate of 39 percent.
“We focus on milk sustainability and high quality milk,” Brian explained. “Our herd is well known for reproduction, and we’ve won numerous awards from the Dairy Herd Reproductive Council (a proactive organization with long-term interest in raising awareness of issues critical to reproductive performance).”
The Schilling farm is still growing, according to Andy and Brian, as the farm looks to add 1,000 cows within the next two and a half to three years.
The farm can be seen up close on Sunday, June 8, at the Grant County Dairy Breakfast, sponsored by the Lancaster FFA Alumni, from 7 a.m. until 11 a.m., rain or shine.
In addition to a “breakfast spread,” there will be guided wagon tours throughout the facilities, a petting zoo, antique tractor and modern farm equipment on display, and ice cream from Vesperman Farms.
