A familiar face on the farm | Ozaukee Press
Although Katie Vogeler was technically a town girl from Holy Cross, she grew up loving the farm life.
“I loved our neighbors, growing up in the farm fields, riding on tractors, all that stuff. All my friends were farm kids,” she said.
Now as the new director of the Ozaukee County Land and Water Management Department, she gets to serve those same farmers who knew her as a girl, helping them implement practices that improve the health of soil and water in the county, among other duties. Vogeler, the daughter of Marty and Brenda Werner, graduated from Ozaukee High School in 2009.
“I drove to school on Tractor Day and all that stuff,” she said. After high school, she followed her love of agriculture, attending the University of Wisconsin — Green Bay, graduating in 2013 with degrees in environmental planning and policy and public administration.
“I knew I wanted to do something that helped farm families and let me work outdoors,” Vogeler said. After graduating, she worked for one year as an intern for Ozaukee County in the Land and Water Management Department. She was already somewhat familiar with Department Director Andy Holschbach and the work he did promoting the Clean Farm Families initiative, the Demonstration Farm Network and other programs, making Ozaukee County a state leader in reducing manure and chemical runoff and improving soil health.
It was during her internship that Vogeler first started to think it might be a good place for a career. “Growing up and through college I was well aware of what Andy was doing,” she said. “I guess in my head (during the internship) I thought it was a perfect fit for me as it would still be a way for me to help (farmers) the best I could.”
But it would be some time before she again worked in the department. She spent eight years as a nutrient management planner for Kettle Lakes Co-op, later Country Vision Co-op, in Random Lake. It was there she met her husband Tyler Vogeler, a liquid operations manager with the farmer-owned co-op. They were married last June. Together they also operate Vogeler Ag Services, which helps other farmers at harvest time.
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