Company Leadership
Gary Zimmer, President, Chairman of the Board, Midwestern Bio-Ag
For over 35 years, Gary Zimmer has been evaluating farming practices as a consultant, on his family's farm, and as president of Midwestern Bio-Ag. He has never stopped learning or teaching throughout a lifetime in agriculture.
Raised on a Wisconsin dairy farm, Gary studied dairy nutrition, earning a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin and a master's degree from the University of Hawaii, combining that knowledge with years of hands-on farming experience. Teaching agriculture in southern Minnesota, he continued learning, studying and reading, always asking questions and looking at ways of farming with an open mind. His questions about the soil and how it relates to healthy and productive plants led him to study The Albrecht Papers, the pioneering work of Prof. William Albrecht.
Gary then trained and worked as a Brookside Consultant for two years. It was during this period that he began to better understand the connection between soil fertility, quality crops, and herd health. The concept of mineralized balanced agriculture viewed as a complex interactive system was to become the foundation of Midwestern Bio-Ag’s philosophy.
In 1984 Gary joined with Fred Kurschner, Don Gilbertson and Don Faber to expand the products and services available to farmers who wanted to put the concepts of biological farming into practice. The company grew from a handful of committed customers to a wide-reaching organization with over four thousand farm customers, a network of trained consultants, regional fertilizer blending facilities and field days that have attracted thousands of visitors from across the country and overseas. Education, training and thinking ‘outside the box’ are the characteristics that Gary continues to emphasize as Midwestern Bio-Ag has expanded into new geographic areas, specialized crops, and unique proprietary products.
Gary is recognized around the world for his commitment to improving farming through building healthy soils, and takes part in many events for farmers and agribusiness professionals all across the U.S. and as far afield as Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Gary has been a speaker at hundreds of agribusiness, organic, and farmer meetings. This includes numerous presentations at the Acres USA Conference and the MOSES Organic Farming Conference, as well as speaking at a variety of events including the Organic World Congress in Korea (2011), Northern Indiana Grazing Conference, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Vermont Grass Farmer's Association Grazing Conference, Wisconsin Grazing Conference, Pennsylvania Sustainable Ag Conference, Missouri Organic Conference, Southern Rocky Mountain Agricultural Conference, and California's EcoFarm Conference. Gary has participated in farmer education programs in Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand and South Africa, and consulted on farms in those countries as well as in Greece, China and Ethiopia.
Gary is the author of two books, Advancing Biological Farming: Practicing Mineralized Balanced Agriculture to Improve Soils & Crops, written with his daughter Leilani Zimmer-Durand and published in 2010, and The Biological Farmer, A Complete Guide to the Sustainable & Profitable Biological System of Farming, published in 2000.
The Zimmer family's organic farming operation near Spring Green, WI utilizes the ideas Gary has gleaned over a lifetime spent studying agriculture. Otter Creek Organic Farm is an over 200-cow organic dairy also producing pasture raised and/or organic beef and farm crops on more than 1,000 acres. The farm operates on the principles of mineralized balanced agriculture: Do everything you can to get soils healthy and mineralized; do everything you can to get the livestock healthy and comfortable.
The family operation was honored in 2008 as the MOSES Organic Farmer of The Year.
Gary Zimmer's focus, and that of Midwestern Bio-Ag as well, remains on the soil as the source of productivity on the farm. He believes that healthy soils produce healthy plants for healthy livestock and healthy humans.
Dan Smith, Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer
Dan Smith, Arena, WI, was named Midwestern Bio-Ag’s COO/CFO on July 11, 2011, assuming responsibilities and authority previously carried out by Don Faber and Don Gilbertson.
Working closely with Gary Zimmer, MBA President and Chairman of the Board, and Don Faber, Board Member and former CFO, Dan is responsible for ensuring that the company’s resources and operational practices are optimized to meet our goals for growth and productivity. He also manages business relationships with Bio-Ag satellites, with our manufacturing and marketing partners, regulatory agencies, and the public.
"We're very pleased to have Dan on board as we move ahead into the future and look to a new generation of company leadership," said Gary Zimmer. "Dan has proven to be very effective at articulating the Bio-Ag message to a wide ranging audience from farmers and bankers to potential business partners and the public in general. That, in addition to his integrity and management skills, makes him a very valuable addition to the leadership of this organization."
Dan "brings a fresh perspective," noted Don Faber, "combined with the knowledge of who we are and what we do. He recognizes MBA's unique place in agriculture, understands our philosophy, and has a clear vision of what the company can achieve in the future. Our customers, staff, and shareholders are well served by having Dan at the helm."
Dan brings a lifetime of agricultural experience to the position along with exceptional business and communications skills. He is uniquely qualified to lead the MBA Central team in taking on the challenges and opportunities of the future.
Prior to accepting this position, Dan was a Financial Consultant with the Wisconsin Farm Center (part of the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection) where he was responsible for enterprise analysis including farm loan portfolios, cash flows, balance sheets and management plans. He also provided the critical communications link between farmers and lenders. Dan served as a mediator/counselor for farm families facing emotional or financial hardships with the additional responsibility of conveying agricultural issues to the general public via mass media presentations and interviews.
Dan was in production agriculture for over 30 years as owner and operator of Smith Farms near Freeport, IL. He followed biological farming practices including rotational grazing and began working with Midwestern Bio-Ag and consultant Duane Siegenthaler. During this period Dan hosted farm tours for university extension groups and served on numerous panels promoting sustainable agricultural systems.
His essays and presentations on family farming and sustainable agriculture have drawn acclaim throughout the Midwest. His essay, An Honest Living, which addressed his decision to retire from dairying, appeared in On Wisconsin, the alumni magazine of UW-Madison, in 2008. Later that year he started an independent agricultural consultant business in southwest Wisconsin affiliated with MBA of Wisconsin, specializing in rotational grazing systems.
A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Agricultural Journalism, he also worked for two years as farm editor of the Monroe Evening Times, Monroe, WI.
"What we do, improve the soil to grow better crops and livestock, is not easy but it is rewarding," says Dan. "The poet Wendell Berry has written that 'the best crop any farm can grow is a careful farmer.' MBA has been growing careful and talented farmers for decades.
"I recently heard a presentation by an international agriculturalist, entitled 'What will it take to feed nine billion people?', or about two billion more than our present world population. The future, he predicted, will contain a growing divide between the haves and the have-nots. We will live in a world of insufficient production on a dwindling number of acres. We will have expensive fuel, limited fertilizer, restrictions on natural resources and eventually, armed conflict over food and water just as we now have over oil.
"For years, we have relied on science and technology to solve our problems. In the future, he stated, the goal must be to enable people around the globe to grow their own food, not have it shipped to them. Our survival, in his view, depends on our ability to respect the principals of three key areas: one: soil nutrition; two: business practices; and three: personal integrity.
"Those same goals could be said for Midwestern Bio-Ag. They are good goals to live by and hold ourselves to. Career consultants constantly tell young people that, when choosing a career, you should always 'go where the heart is.' By that, they mean choose a field ripe with great challenges and the possibility of great rewards. We are the lucky ones - we are already there!"
Don Faber, (MBA co-founder), Board of Directors
Don Faber, Fitchburg, WI was a co-founder and has been the business manager for all Midwestern Bio-Ag affiliated companies since MBA's inception in 1984. He established the organizational structures, secured funding, and established fiscal and operational controls. Don also set up 'incubator' programs that facilitated the launching and reorganization of affiliated businesses over the years including Bio-Vet Inc. He has been active in daily management as the organization grew.
Don's current focus is on transitioning the MBA organization's management and ownership to another generation of leadership and growth. As he states, "We have always intended Bio-Ag to be a multi-generational company serving farmers well into the future. Ensuring that the resources are available to do so is critical and requires thorough strategic planning as well as an optimization of the company's organizational structure. It also means transition of key management and equity positions as the company is positioned to maximize its opportunities over the decades to come." Don will continue to serve on the Board of Directors of MBA Central and remain a major shareholder.
Don Faber took a very roundabout route, as in several times around the world, to becoming a partner in Midwestern Bio-Ag. Born in his mother's homeland of Iceland, he also lived and attended school in Middle Eastern countries and graduated from high school in Rome, Italy, coming to live in the U.S. at age 17.
He then spent eight years in the U.S. Air Force Special Operations as a Pararescue Specialist, trained in parachuting, scuba (a sport he still avidly pursues), mountain rescue, and advanced EMT skills. He served in Southeast Asia from 1968-69, and later spent three years with the NASA affiliated Apollo Recovery Team.
Attending college on the GI Bill, Don graduated with honors from the University of West Florida with a degree in Biology and Resource Management as well as graduate classes in Economics. In addition to numerous classes and professional development programs, he subsequently completed an MBA degree with an emphasis in finance.
Don worked for a time as a Land Use Planner in Pensacola, Florida, and following that worked for six years in Saudi Arabia as a Business & Planning Analyst for the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco) before returning to the U.S. in 1984. It was while in Saudi Arabia that he met and married Ruthann Zimmer, an adventurous educator who was also working for Aramco.
Through Ruthann he got to know her brother Gary and learn of his mission to change agriculture. Don was intrigued and offered to help set up an enterprise that could make that vision come true. That, as Don says, "is still the goal as the vision spreads all over the world. The Midwestern Bio-Ag companies continue to be the leaders in the systems and regenerative approach to mineralized balanced agriculture."
MBA Founders
Don Gilbertson, co-founder of MBA
A Blue Mounds, WI native and graduate of Barneveld High School, Don Gilbertson is one of the co-founders of Midwestern Bio-Ag. He retired in 2011 from MBA's day-day operations after more than 26 years but remains a stockholder and advisor to the company.
For those 26-plus years Don was responsible for setting up and maintaining operations and customer service procedures, where his personal ethics and commitment to our farm customers became a major factor in developing the reputation of the company. In the early years he made do with a limited budget in serving a customer base that stretched hundreds of miles; there wasn't a job or chore in the company that Don wasn’t willing to do before he asked of others.
Prior to joining Fred Kurschner in a composting business, Don dairy farmed in southwestern Wisconsin for over 20 years.
His history with Midwestern Bio-Ag included all aspects of inventory and plant operations, skills he honed during service in the United States Air Force, both as an active duty NCO (1957-1965) and with the reserves (1984-1996). He retired from the USAF in October of 1996 with nearly 22 years of total military service, achieving the rank of Master Sergeant.
"It's a marvelous feeling to be able today to be a leader in biological and organic farming methods and have premier products available for our farmers," says Don. When Midwestern Bio-Ag first started, a growing number of farmers were looking for something beyond the conventional "but there was no one to guide them, show them the way, or offer them products." That became Bio-Ag's role. "With Gary Zimmer's consulting knowledge, Fred Kurschner's sales expertise, and Don Faber's business savvy, we put together a program that makes logical and economic sense" for farmers.
Don Gilbertson and his wife Sonya live in New Glarus, WI and are very involved in community church activities. They also volunteer with Source of Light Ministries International, based out of Madison, GA, a non-denominational Christian organization that provides Bible correspondence courses throughout the world. Don will be busy in his retirement but will always be there for Midwestern Bio-Ag as a mentor and colleague.
In Memoriam:
Fred Kurschner, co-founder of MBA and Bio-Ag's first Sales Consultant
Biological farming lost one of its passionate supporters with the unexpected passing of Fred Kurschner on April 13, 2011, at the age of 72. A founding partner of Midwestern Bio-Ag, Fred was a vital part of MBA's success and its continuing growth over the years. Even after his retirement in 2008 he continued to participate in many company meetings and events.
In 1983, Fred was excited by a compost demonstration he saw on the Ralph Engelken farm in Iowa. That led to a partnership with Engelken, Don Gilbertson, Marv Marty and others, forming BioAg Services of America, a composting service. They held meetings that winter promoting a compost starter used to inoculate windrows, and Don Gilbertson pulled a Wildcat compost turner from farm to farm, using the farmers' own tractors to run the equipment. They contacted Gary Zimmer later that year for help as a Soil and Nutrition Consultant. Fred, Gary, Don Gilbertson and Don Faber subsequently expanded the scope of the original business, re-organized, and formed Midwestern Bio-Ag Products & Services in December of 1984.
A native of Barron, WI and a graduate of Barron High school, Fred's wide ranging business experience included sales of animal health products in southwest Wisconsin from 1978-1983; owner and operator of K&K Enterprises, buying and remodeling homes/buildings for resale, 1973-1982; grocery store owner in Forreston, IL, 1969-73; sausage and other meat products sales to grocery stores, building a route from scratch to over 60 customers, 1965-69; and a meat-cutter in grocery stores from 1957-65.
Fred's approach to farming and consulting was summed up in an interview where he stated, "Feed the soil life. We teach it, we preach it. Feed the soil microbes: if you feed them, they'll feed you." In the end, the solution is simple, he said. "We balance a soil to create an environment to feed soil life using calcium, sulfur and trace minerals. We give them a nice home to live in, and the food they'll thrive on. When a farmer accomplishes that, he's raising healthy plants and healthy livestock. Lower input costs include less spent on chemicals, lower vet bills, less spent on protein and commodities. Farmers can survive the low prices and thrive on the good prices because their bottom line is as healthy as their land.
"The whole thing, in a nutshell, is to create that environment for the microbes and earthworms. Once you've got that environment, don't put anything on there that is toxic to them. The third step is to feed them; that's our way of making the farm sustainable."
Fred served as MBA's Vice President of Sales, where his many duties included visiting farms and conducting farmer round table meetings, explaining the tenets and benefits of biological farming and MBA's products. Another key role was recruiting and training Bio-Ag consultants.
He was a fixture in the Midwestern Bio-Ag booth at trade shows such as Farm Technology Days, World Dairy Expo, and MBA’s own Field Day. Over the years he introduced thousands of farmers to the principles of biological farming.
"It makes me feel good to help make farmers understand that there is an alternative" to conventional farming products and practices, he said in an interview. "It's so much fun working with farmers and consultants. I've created a lot of friendships through the years." Those friendships extended beyond business hours, and included the many trips and adventures that he took over the years, including those with his fishing buddy Bob Yanda.
Fred's beloved wife Delores passed away just a few weeks after his death. They are survived by their combined six children and 14 grandchildren, other relatives, and many, many friends including the farmers and other agribusiness professionals he worked with over the years.
Fred Kurschner left an indelible impression on all of us who had the privilege of knowing him and working with him. His passion for life and for biological farming will always remain with us.
