MADISON, Wis. – Professional Dairy Producers recently honored Wisconsin dairy farmer Dan Natzke with the prestigious Dean Strauss Leadership Award. The presentation took place on Wednesday, March 4, at the Professional Dairy Producers (PDP) Business Conference in Madison. Natzke owns and manages Wayside Dairy LLC near Greenleaf, Wis., with his son Jeremy Natzke, daughter Jenna Nonemacher and Jesse Dvorachek. He is married to Barb Natzke, his wife of 52 years.
“The Dean Strauss Leadership Award recognizes a dairy producer who exemplifies visionary thinking and servant leadership in the dairy community and beyond,” said Shelly Mayer, executive director of PDP. “Those of us who know Dan personally will agree he is an exemplary model of servant leadership in our industry and his community.”
Dan’s ancestors came from Germany to the Greenleaf, Wis., area in 1863 and started the farm that now includes the fifth generation of the family. Dan has been farming on his own since he was 17, when he and his brother, Bob, formed a partnership. The dairy grew from 80 cows in two stanchion barns to the current 2000 cows in freestall barns and a parallel milking parlor. A 2001 barn fire destroyed the milking parlor, feed center, shop and some barns, which led to cows being housed offsite for six weeks and a yearlong process to build the dairy’s current complex.
Dan served two 3-year terms on the PDP Board of Directors from 1994 through 2000. He is also a member of the Farm Wisconsin Discovery Center Board of Directors. He was recognized as a Wisconsin Master Agriculturist in 2018, and Wayside Dairy is a repeat winner of the CentralStar Cooperative’s ReproStar Award, which recognizes dairy producers who achieve exceptional reproductive efficiency.
Active in Zion Lutheran Church of Wayside, he has served as church chairman and elder, serves currently on its outreach and mission committee, and has been school board chairman for both Zion Lutheran Elementary School and N.E.W. Lutheran High School in Green Bay, Wis.
In 2005, Dan participated in his first volunteer mission to the Dominican Republic. Since then, he has returned more than a dozen times to lead teams in building churches and schools, digging wells and delivering needed equipment.
The Dean Strauss Leadership Award was established by the PDP Board of Directors in 2021 in honor of Dean Strauss, a Wisconsin dairy farmer and industry leader who unexpectedly passed away in 2019 at the age of 48. The owner of Majestic Meadows Dairy, LLC, near Sheboygan Falls, Wis., Strauss was active in a number of dairy organizations and leadership boards, including PDP’s board, on which he served as president.
