SILVANA — By midday, everyone is outside.
Fred Schoenbachler lifts feed with his tractor’s bucket loader and dumps it into a trough for his prize-winning registered Holstein milk cows.
With a wide hoe, his daughter Adrienne scrapes manure into an underground fertilizer tank.
Her jeans are tucked into her brown barn boots, the rolled-up sleeves of her Ichiro T-shirt reveal bulging biceps. A cap on the 19-year-old’s head keeps her hair pulled back. If not for her delicate face, she might be mistaken for a strong teenage boy.
No one had that impression two years ago when Adrienne was crowned Dairy Ambassador at a pageant to choose a girl to promote the dairy industry.
For more than 50 years, the Dairy Ambassador has been a tradition among dairy families throughout Snohomish County. While the number of dairy farms has dwindled over the years, the coronation continues to bring farming families such as the Schoenbachlers together.
The tradition continued Saturday.
Brooke, 16, is the latest of the Schoenbachler girls to run for the Dairy Ambassador crown — behind Adrienne and their older sister Alycia. Before the pageant, she was nervous because she was up against two tough competitors.
At the farm earlier this month, Brooke, a relief milker, was in a nearby barn feeding calves. She’s been the family’s calf manager since she was 10, and her family relies on her to prepare them to join the herd.
The girls’ brother Blake is just shy of becoming a teenager. With practiced skill he drives a tractor to make the final push of poop into the fertilizer tank. Like his sisters, he recently purchased his own heifer. It was the happiest day of his life, he said.
Tammi Schoenbachler, their mother, stands by and argues with one of the family’s elite cows. At 5-feet-tall at the shoulder, Barcelona is more than 1,000 pounds of I-Don’t-Want-To-Move. The cow would rather visit with a guest than step over to the feed trough.
“She thinks she’s people,” says Brooke, shaking her head.
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The Schoenbachlers’ Sildahl Farm is a premier dairy in the county, said Washington State University Extension dairy agent Ned Zaugg.
Named for the family’s roots in the Sildahl Valley of Switzerland, the farm sports a Swiss flag that flaps when the wind gusts through the Stillaguamish River valley.
For more than 20 consecutive years, the Schoenbachlers had the highest producing dairy in the Snohomish County, milking twice a day for Darigold. In addition, Sildahl Farm produces breeding stock that sell internationally.
“They are modest people, but the quality of their cattle is world-renowned,” Zaugg said.
Once a big part of the county’s agricultural economy, dairy farms like the Schoenbachlers’ are disappearing. About 15 years ago, there were more than 100 dairies in the county, now there are fewer than 30.
“It isn’t just the loss of cows and milk income, but a cultural depletion that is a real loss to the county,” Zaugg said. “There is something magical that happens when people are pulling together and contributing to a wholesome way of life that includes all family members, supporting industries and thousands of acres of manicured fields.”
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The Schoenbachlers are trying to keep that magic going, though wholesale milk prices are averaging below what many dairy farmers say they need to break even.
The Schoenbachlers milk about 120 cows in their herd of 200, carry little debt, fertilize their fields with manure and don’t use chemicals, so times are not as tough for them as they are for some.
Milk sells for about $11 for 100 pounds, what farmers call a hundredweight. Last year a hundredweight brought in nearly twice as much. The rising cost of feed and fuel aren’t easily passed onto the consumer, Tammi Schoenbachler said. If not for the sales of breeding stock, sperm and embryos, Sildahl Farm also might struggle.
By keeping the farm in the family, the Schoenbachlers figure they have a chance.
Fred Schoenbachler was raised on the farm and bought it from his parents about 20 years ago. Tammi grew up raising 4-H animals and met Fred at Stanwood High School.
Though they have nothing against public schools, the Schoenbachlers teach their children at home. Home-schooling allows the kids to complete their studies in about three hours a day and have plenty of time for work. They are essential to the day-to-day operation of the farm. Being at home also gives them more time to spend with their dad and learn the business.
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Fred Schoenbachler rises before 3 each morning for the first round of milking. A hired hand helps out in the milking parlor until 6:30 a.m. when the kids get up to care for the calves and help with the chores.
Breakfast is at 7:30, followed by the next round of chores. After lunch Schoenbachler takes a nap, which helps him get through the afternoon and evening.
Supper is served at the dining room table, but everybody eats quickly because work won’t be done until about 8 p.m., and that’s on a smooth day.
If a cow is birthing or if it’s time to harvest grass for silage or the herd won’t come in from grazing in the back 40 acres, the days grow long.
Everything revolves around the cows.
Family vacations usually mean day trips to the small summer fairs in Silvana and Stanwood and the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe.
The one time the Schoenbachlers took their kids to Disneyland, everybody got sick.
“You just have to see this way of life as your avocation, not a job,” Fred Schoenbachler said.
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Tammi Schoenbachler is the president of Snohomish County Dairy Women, part of a statewide organization that promotes the dairy industry.
In 1955, when hundreds of dairies dotted the farmland, a group of wives of Snohomish County dairymen met at the Monte Cristo Hotel in Everett to form the organization.
The dairy women raise money at their well-known Purple Cow booth at the Monroe fair for food bank donations, scholarships, 4-H programs, the Silvana fair, farm disaster relief and the state Dairy Ambassador program.
Once a larger group, the county dairy women now number around 23, with about 16 who are active.
Patricia Manning of Arlington, a longtime member of the Dairy Women and a retired dairy owner, said population sprawl along with the tough economy have made it rough for local dairies.
“Snohomish County isn’t an agriculture-focused community anymore. It’s very urban and suburban,” Manning said. “People who move here from Seattle and California don’t like the smell.”
All the more reason to keep the Dairy Ambassador program and its promotional efforts going, Manning said.
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Unlike Adrienne, Brooke wears a fashionable T-shirt and a touch of makeup, even while she’s milking.
The cows line up at a fence, chewing their cud and waiting their turn in the milking parlor. Baskets of grain await the eight cows hooked up to the milking machine.
Brooke turns up the country music on the radio, keeping the cows calm as they file in and out. She disinfects the teats on each udder before and after milking, and gently encourages the familiar routine they all must follow.
After milking, Brooke heads to her bedroom for a quick rest before helping with supper.
Her dresser, desk and walls are lined with hundreds of trophies, plaques and ribbons she has earned in 4-H at the fairs, as well as dairy quiz bowl events, breed-judging contests and competitions at the international dairy exposition in Madison, Wis. An active member of the youth group at St. Cecilia Catholic Church, Brooke also has a picture of St. Mary on her wall, but it is nearly hidden among all the ribbons.
She wants to learn how to be a hairstylist on the side, but Brooke plans to never leave the dairy industry.
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Brooke’s oldest sister Alycia, is a 21-year-old wife, mother, WSU student and employee for a dairy herd genetics company. She was the first in the family to earn the county Dairy Ambassador crown.
Adrienne was next. The only Schoenbachler child who swears she won’t be back to farm, Adrienne plans to study communications at an Ohio college in the fall. As Dairy Ambassador, she enjoyed writing the speeches about the dairy industry that she was required to deliver to school and 4-H groups, service clubs and lawmakers, along with the appearances she made at the local fairs.
To move away from the beauty contest element, the Dairy Women years ago stopped calling the young women dairy princesses. Brooke doesn’t especially like to write speeches, but she looked forward to dressing up like a princess for the coronation.
“Adrienne gives me tips on speaking, but I give her tips on her clothes,” Brooke said.
When Adrienne competed for the crown, even her maternal grandparents didn’t recognize her.
“They said to me, ‘Excuse me miss, have you seen Adrienne?’ They didn’t know me without my boots on,” she said.
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At the 54th annual Snohomish County Dairy Ambassador coronation banquet Saturday evening, Fred Schoenbachler, dressed in a rarely worn suit, escorted Brooke into Silvana’s Viking Hall, as he had done before with his other daughters.
Brooke in her candidate’s speech during the banquet described her jobs on the farm and told the crowd that her favorite part was the one-on-one contact she has with each cow.
“I take great pleasure in beautifying the cows,” she said.
After the candidates spoke and a crowd of 150 people enjoyed a dinner of prime rib and 16-ounce bottles of milk, the dairy families and guests settled back for a program, the finale being the announcement of the winner of the Dairy Ambassador crown.
Andrea Neff of Arlington was named the new county Dairy Ambassador, graciously congratulated by Kelsey Anderson of Snohomish and Brooke.
At the Schoenbachler farm, life goes on.
Everybody planned to sleep in — until 7 this morning, before going out to start their chores.
As she does frequently, Brooke said, she might also pour a little milk for Chloe, the barn cat.
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427, gfiege@heraldnet.com.
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