MONROE - When Mark Mayer was young and farming with his father and grandfather, he said there might not have been anything quite as satisfying as looking back on a field that had just been sowed or harvested to see his accomplishment.
That sense is now felt as he edges near retirement from the University of Wisconsin-Extension Office for more than three decades. He said he's finally seeing all he's accomplished through the years after a rewarding career at the helm of growth and change in Green County.
"I've always believed you get busy people to do things," Mayer said.
The developments of programs within his career are only part of his story; he's also been heavily involved in the community and the schools and has spearheaded groups and organizations that are still giving back to youth and others in several ways.
Mayer was raised on a dairy farm just north of Monroe as the second oldest of four boys. He was one of the last students to attend the rural country school and had a class of three at Iliff School on Iliff Road. By the time he came to town, he said he knew all of the answers after working ahead with the older students.
He has fond memories of the 16-acre farm that grew over time. They milked about 45 cows and had pigs and sheep. His grandfather settled in Green County from Austria and was a cheesemaker, smearing limburger cheese for more than 20 years at the Chalet, which was where his home farm's milk was sent.
The boys found fun moments fishing in a trout stream that ran through the farm, Mayer recalls, and they were involved in 4-H. He's glad the farm is still in the family.
Sports and FFA were Mayer's two passions in high school. He enjoyed football; he was the team captain and received all-conference honors. He also wrestled. He was an FFA officer for two years and worked part time at Rufenacht's gas station. He said he was an average student who rarely studied. The 1977 Monroe High School graduate chose to attend the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.
"I knew I probably wanted to do something in agriculture," Mayer said.
After a semester, Mayer said school wasn't for him. He was part of the First National Tug of War Team at the time, and they won a national competition in Iowa and then represented the U.S. in the World Championships in Ireland in 1978.
Mayer worked at another dairy farm with his grandfather and spent his evenings at Colony Brands driving a fork lift.
"I was burning candles at both ends," he said with a smile. "I went back to school then."
Back at Platteville, Mayer studied first in ag business but then changed his focus to ag education, likely because of his positive experiences in FFA. He attended school during summer breaks and took some online classes to push his way through in three-and-a-half years, earning honors. He was the first person in his family to finish college.
The year brought ups and downs for Mayer, who lost his 19-year-old brother to cancer that April. He and his high school sweetheart, Lynn, had plans for a wedding in May and continued with the event despite their heavy hearts.
"It makes you realize how precious life is," he said. "It was tough to keep the wedding without him."
Mayer also completed his student teaching that year in South Wayne alongside Richard Meske, a mentor to him, and landed a full-time job in 1982 as the Darlington High School ag teacher and FFA advisor. He said it was a job he loved with wonderful students and families. During his three years as the instructor, he had two state FFA officers, was part of the top 10 chapters and qualified for the national land-judging contest. He said he pulled his competitive nature into his teaching style, and with strong FFA alumni, was able to accomplish great things in a short amount of time.
"I believe a teacher is the second most important job there is, behind being a parent," Mayer said. "You can have so much influence."
When the Green County Dairy and Livestock Agent position opened in Green County, Mayer said he hated to leave the school and job he loved, but he and Lynn were starting a family, and both hoped to return to Monroe. He was hired in August 1985 as the first ag agent hired in his home county.
"It was a really hard decision," he said. "I had some really great kids. It was a tough place to leave."
His position soon morphed into agriculture and topics broadened to include almost every aspect of ag.
In the late 1980s, all Extension positions were tenure tracks, requiring master's degrees. Mayer earned his in 1989, was granted tenure, became associate professor and was later promoted to full professor. In 1991, he took over as the department head, a partially administrative position he still holds.
Through the years, Mayer has seen big changes in his job and in farming.
Huge transformations in technology changed his career. He recalled the farm crisis in the mid-1980s and severe drought in 1988, where he witnessed the loss of farms, as a tough time in agriculture.
"The hardest part has been to see the loss of the family farms," Mayer said.
Though he misses the farm visits because of changes in communication, Mayer said watching the advancement in farming has also been rewarding. He's been offered opportunities to leave through the years but noted that because of the community, staying has always made sense for him and his family.
"I've enjoyed it. I've been blessed," Mayer said. "I've never once had to worry about what I'm going to do."
Extension impacts
Bettering the land and community has been what Mayer reveled in through the years. In 1993, he started the Clean Sweep Hazardous Waste Collection program. He's written grants totaling more than $250,000 over the years and has disposed properly of more than 58 tons of materials that are no longer a threat to groundwater.
"I feel good about that," Mayer said, noting he has received a grant to continue the program.
In 1996, Mayer was chosen from a pool of 500 candidates to participate in the Wisconsin Leadership Program. He was one of 27 people who took part in 12 sessions over two years, including an international trip to North Vietnam and Thailand where they were the first Americans to stay in private homes in the village of Dong Ho. He also visited the War Crimes Museum, elementary schools, Bach Mai Hospital and several farms. Experiencing villages in a communist country brought him unforgettable experiences.
"The whole program taught me to look at the bigger picture," Mayer said.
In 2001, Mayer established the Dairy Youth Recognition Auction while working with the Foreign Type Cheesemakers to recognize 10 dairy youth exhibitors at the Green County Fair. The auctions have given out more than $200,000 in cash awards and scholarships.
In 2004, he established the master gardener program in Green County after prodding from a group of interested people. Although he has no gardening background, Mayer has been the group's advisor since 2004 and helped train 135 certified master gardeners who have contributed more than 25,000 hours of community service to Green County.
"I didn't do any of this myself," he said. "There's always a lot of people helping."
Mayer took on one of his biggest projects in 2007 when he agreed to have Green County host Farm Technology Days. He served as the executive secretary for the Wisconsin Farm Technology Show. The three-year process was well worth it; the Albany-based event was successful, bringing in more than 800 volunteers and 40,000 visitors with a $1 million budget and an executive committee. They returned more than $188,000 to Green County nonprofits and helped create a greenhouse for Albany schools, a food trailer for the FFA alumni and bought large fans for fairground barns.
"We're still feeling the impact of that show," Mayer said. Other than the hiccup of 24 inches of rain, Mayer said the leadership and development that came out of the event was the start of several positive things in the county.
Even in recent years, Mayer worked to bring fresh ideas to Extension. The Agriculture Plastics Recycling Program began in 2008 with an Arkansas-based company agreeing to clean and recycle silo plastic to keep it out of landfills. Dumpsters have been distributed to more than 5,000 farms in the Midwest, diverting 3 million pounds per month from landfills and burn piles in a four-state area. The program is also saving farmers more than $500,000 annually on disposal costs.
"I'm so proud to keep plastic out of the landfill and to economically benefit the farmers," Mayer said.
One of his struggles has been working with dairy modernization and helping aging farmers keep animals instead of resorting to cash crops. He's assisted hundreds of family dairy farms in southern Wisconsin with modernization to increase cow comfort and productivity and to reduce labor to help family farms bring in the next generation.
Community
involvement
Mayer's community involvement started early. Father Thomas Campion recruited him at 16 to drive for the Apostolate to the Handicapped. Mayer hasn't stopped volunteering in the 40 years since and has served on the board of directors for more than 20 years. He served on the Cheese Days Board of Directors for 16 years and has been the chair of the Farm & Cheese Factory Tours for 32 years. His family's farm was the first farm tour offered. Mayer has served on the YMCA board for six years and coached teams when his children were younger.
"The world is run by those who show up," Mayer said.
When Mayer's daughter Abby became interested in swimming, he organized a team for high school athletes. In 1995, after he fundraised for a club, the school board agreed to the team.
"You're talking to a guy who doesn't even float," Mayer said. "Even though I can't do it, it's another way for more kids to participate."
Mayer was elected to the school board in 1996 while serving on the YMCA - providing the perfect opportunity to emphasize the importance of the team. Mayer is proud it's still so strong.
"I still get so much satisfaction to see the kids in the paper going to state," he said.
Mayer took on roles as both the vice president and president of the school board and said he was glad to be the person to hand his two children diplomas. When a referendum failed, Mayer went to work, spending mornings at Corner Cafe to explain details of the referendum to community members. In 1997, it passed, but he doesn't credit himself.
"I was not alone in that," he said. "There was a whole board and community."
The school board also established the first charter and virtual school at that time, something he is also proud of.
After a school board convention in 2002 where he was encouraged to take more of an active role in the classrooms from the private sector, Mayer spearheaded the Monroe Excellence in Education Foundation Task Force, working with the Monroe Fund. It began with funds from his own class of 1977 after he recruited an old classmate to help raise $25,000 to supplement Monroe classrooms. They've now given more than $125,000 in grants to teachers. Mayer served on the charter board of directors for more than a decade.
"It's been really rewarding to see that continue and how it's helped our youth," Mayer said of the EIE award.
Currently on his second three-year term on the Black Hawk Technical College Board of Directors, Mayer refuses to serve more than three terms on any board, imposing term limits on himself because he feels it's healthy to have new people and fresh ideas.
"You can't complain about things unless you're willing to be a part of the process," Mayer said. "I'd like to see more people step up. The community has done a lot for me, and I like to pay it back."
Awards and family
Mayer is glad he was able to make his children's activities a priority and said his involvement helped because he was a parent who knew what was going on in the schools and the community.
Mayer holds two Honorary Chapter FFA degrees from Darlington and Monroe, has earned the FFA Distinguished Service Award, the UW-Extension Excellence in Programming Award, the UW-Extension Programming Innovation Award, the Wisconsin County Agent of the Year and the National Distinguished Service Award for the National County Ag Agents Association.
"I'm not the most creative or the smartest - but there's not many as strong-willed or would out-work me," he said.
He and Lynn love to spend time with family, including their two children and their families. He's looking forward to spending more time with his four grandchildren after his retirement. Mayer now lives on a few acres of land after being in town for years and enjoys yard work, being outside in nature as much as possible.
Mayer promised himself to stay off any boards for a year after his retirement but knows well enough to not rule out involvement completely.
"It's a safe bet I'll pop up again somewhere," Mayer said. "I've still got some gas in the tank."
Mayer's parting thoughts are words from a sign hanging in his office for more years than he can recall. It's how he sees himself, and it makes clear that anyone has the ability to be a leader, that accomplishments are often as simple as determination, hard work and commitment.
"Real leaders are ordinary people with extraordinary determination."
That sense is now felt as he edges near retirement from the University of Wisconsin-Extension Office for more than three decades. He said he's finally seeing all he's accomplished through the years after a rewarding career at the helm of growth and change in Green County.
"I've always believed you get busy people to do things," Mayer said.
The developments of programs within his career are only part of his story; he's also been heavily involved in the community and the schools and has spearheaded groups and organizations that are still giving back to youth and others in several ways.
Mayer was raised on a dairy farm just north of Monroe as the second oldest of four boys. He was one of the last students to attend the rural country school and had a class of three at Iliff School on Iliff Road. By the time he came to town, he said he knew all of the answers after working ahead with the older students.
He has fond memories of the 16-acre farm that grew over time. They milked about 45 cows and had pigs and sheep. His grandfather settled in Green County from Austria and was a cheesemaker, smearing limburger cheese for more than 20 years at the Chalet, which was where his home farm's milk was sent.
The boys found fun moments fishing in a trout stream that ran through the farm, Mayer recalls, and they were involved in 4-H. He's glad the farm is still in the family.
Sports and FFA were Mayer's two passions in high school. He enjoyed football; he was the team captain and received all-conference honors. He also wrestled. He was an FFA officer for two years and worked part time at Rufenacht's gas station. He said he was an average student who rarely studied. The 1977 Monroe High School graduate chose to attend the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.
"I knew I probably wanted to do something in agriculture," Mayer said.
After a semester, Mayer said school wasn't for him. He was part of the First National Tug of War Team at the time, and they won a national competition in Iowa and then represented the U.S. in the World Championships in Ireland in 1978.
Mayer worked at another dairy farm with his grandfather and spent his evenings at Colony Brands driving a fork lift.
"I was burning candles at both ends," he said with a smile. "I went back to school then."
Back at Platteville, Mayer studied first in ag business but then changed his focus to ag education, likely because of his positive experiences in FFA. He attended school during summer breaks and took some online classes to push his way through in three-and-a-half years, earning honors. He was the first person in his family to finish college.
The year brought ups and downs for Mayer, who lost his 19-year-old brother to cancer that April. He and his high school sweetheart, Lynn, had plans for a wedding in May and continued with the event despite their heavy hearts.
"It makes you realize how precious life is," he said. "It was tough to keep the wedding without him."
Mayer also completed his student teaching that year in South Wayne alongside Richard Meske, a mentor to him, and landed a full-time job in 1982 as the Darlington High School ag teacher and FFA advisor. He said it was a job he loved with wonderful students and families. During his three years as the instructor, he had two state FFA officers, was part of the top 10 chapters and qualified for the national land-judging contest. He said he pulled his competitive nature into his teaching style, and with strong FFA alumni, was able to accomplish great things in a short amount of time.
"I believe a teacher is the second most important job there is, behind being a parent," Mayer said. "You can have so much influence."
When the Green County Dairy and Livestock Agent position opened in Green County, Mayer said he hated to leave the school and job he loved, but he and Lynn were starting a family, and both hoped to return to Monroe. He was hired in August 1985 as the first ag agent hired in his home county.
"It was a really hard decision," he said. "I had some really great kids. It was a tough place to leave."
His position soon morphed into agriculture and topics broadened to include almost every aspect of ag.
In the late 1980s, all Extension positions were tenure tracks, requiring master's degrees. Mayer earned his in 1989, was granted tenure, became associate professor and was later promoted to full professor. In 1991, he took over as the department head, a partially administrative position he still holds.
Through the years, Mayer has seen big changes in his job and in farming.
Huge transformations in technology changed his career. He recalled the farm crisis in the mid-1980s and severe drought in 1988, where he witnessed the loss of farms, as a tough time in agriculture.
"The hardest part has been to see the loss of the family farms," Mayer said.
Though he misses the farm visits because of changes in communication, Mayer said watching the advancement in farming has also been rewarding. He's been offered opportunities to leave through the years but noted that because of the community, staying has always made sense for him and his family.
"I've enjoyed it. I've been blessed," Mayer said. "I've never once had to worry about what I'm going to do."
Extension impacts
Bettering the land and community has been what Mayer reveled in through the years. In 1993, he started the Clean Sweep Hazardous Waste Collection program. He's written grants totaling more than $250,000 over the years and has disposed properly of more than 58 tons of materials that are no longer a threat to groundwater.
"I feel good about that," Mayer said, noting he has received a grant to continue the program.
In 1996, Mayer was chosen from a pool of 500 candidates to participate in the Wisconsin Leadership Program. He was one of 27 people who took part in 12 sessions over two years, including an international trip to North Vietnam and Thailand where they were the first Americans to stay in private homes in the village of Dong Ho. He also visited the War Crimes Museum, elementary schools, Bach Mai Hospital and several farms. Experiencing villages in a communist country brought him unforgettable experiences.
"The whole program taught me to look at the bigger picture," Mayer said.
In 2001, Mayer established the Dairy Youth Recognition Auction while working with the Foreign Type Cheesemakers to recognize 10 dairy youth exhibitors at the Green County Fair. The auctions have given out more than $200,000 in cash awards and scholarships.
In 2004, he established the master gardener program in Green County after prodding from a group of interested people. Although he has no gardening background, Mayer has been the group's advisor since 2004 and helped train 135 certified master gardeners who have contributed more than 25,000 hours of community service to Green County.
"I didn't do any of this myself," he said. "There's always a lot of people helping."
Mayer took on one of his biggest projects in 2007 when he agreed to have Green County host Farm Technology Days. He served as the executive secretary for the Wisconsin Farm Technology Show. The three-year process was well worth it; the Albany-based event was successful, bringing in more than 800 volunteers and 40,000 visitors with a $1 million budget and an executive committee. They returned more than $188,000 to Green County nonprofits and helped create a greenhouse for Albany schools, a food trailer for the FFA alumni and bought large fans for fairground barns.
"We're still feeling the impact of that show," Mayer said. Other than the hiccup of 24 inches of rain, Mayer said the leadership and development that came out of the event was the start of several positive things in the county.
Even in recent years, Mayer worked to bring fresh ideas to Extension. The Agriculture Plastics Recycling Program began in 2008 with an Arkansas-based company agreeing to clean and recycle silo plastic to keep it out of landfills. Dumpsters have been distributed to more than 5,000 farms in the Midwest, diverting 3 million pounds per month from landfills and burn piles in a four-state area. The program is also saving farmers more than $500,000 annually on disposal costs.
"I'm so proud to keep plastic out of the landfill and to economically benefit the farmers," Mayer said.
One of his struggles has been working with dairy modernization and helping aging farmers keep animals instead of resorting to cash crops. He's assisted hundreds of family dairy farms in southern Wisconsin with modernization to increase cow comfort and productivity and to reduce labor to help family farms bring in the next generation.
Community
involvement
Mayer's community involvement started early. Father Thomas Campion recruited him at 16 to drive for the Apostolate to the Handicapped. Mayer hasn't stopped volunteering in the 40 years since and has served on the board of directors for more than 20 years. He served on the Cheese Days Board of Directors for 16 years and has been the chair of the Farm & Cheese Factory Tours for 32 years. His family's farm was the first farm tour offered. Mayer has served on the YMCA board for six years and coached teams when his children were younger.
"The world is run by those who show up," Mayer said.
When Mayer's daughter Abby became interested in swimming, he organized a team for high school athletes. In 1995, after he fundraised for a club, the school board agreed to the team.
"You're talking to a guy who doesn't even float," Mayer said. "Even though I can't do it, it's another way for more kids to participate."
Mayer was elected to the school board in 1996 while serving on the YMCA - providing the perfect opportunity to emphasize the importance of the team. Mayer is proud it's still so strong.
"I still get so much satisfaction to see the kids in the paper going to state," he said.
Mayer took on roles as both the vice president and president of the school board and said he was glad to be the person to hand his two children diplomas. When a referendum failed, Mayer went to work, spending mornings at Corner Cafe to explain details of the referendum to community members. In 1997, it passed, but he doesn't credit himself.
"I was not alone in that," he said. "There was a whole board and community."
The school board also established the first charter and virtual school at that time, something he is also proud of.
After a school board convention in 2002 where he was encouraged to take more of an active role in the classrooms from the private sector, Mayer spearheaded the Monroe Excellence in Education Foundation Task Force, working with the Monroe Fund. It began with funds from his own class of 1977 after he recruited an old classmate to help raise $25,000 to supplement Monroe classrooms. They've now given more than $125,000 in grants to teachers. Mayer served on the charter board of directors for more than a decade.
"It's been really rewarding to see that continue and how it's helped our youth," Mayer said of the EIE award.
Currently on his second three-year term on the Black Hawk Technical College Board of Directors, Mayer refuses to serve more than three terms on any board, imposing term limits on himself because he feels it's healthy to have new people and fresh ideas.
"You can't complain about things unless you're willing to be a part of the process," Mayer said. "I'd like to see more people step up. The community has done a lot for me, and I like to pay it back."
Awards and family
Mayer is glad he was able to make his children's activities a priority and said his involvement helped because he was a parent who knew what was going on in the schools and the community.
Mayer holds two Honorary Chapter FFA degrees from Darlington and Monroe, has earned the FFA Distinguished Service Award, the UW-Extension Excellence in Programming Award, the UW-Extension Programming Innovation Award, the Wisconsin County Agent of the Year and the National Distinguished Service Award for the National County Ag Agents Association.
"I'm not the most creative or the smartest - but there's not many as strong-willed or would out-work me," he said.
He and Lynn love to spend time with family, including their two children and their families. He's looking forward to spending more time with his four grandchildren after his retirement. Mayer now lives on a few acres of land after being in town for years and enjoys yard work, being outside in nature as much as possible.
Mayer promised himself to stay off any boards for a year after his retirement but knows well enough to not rule out involvement completely.
"It's a safe bet I'll pop up again somewhere," Mayer said. "I've still got some gas in the tank."
Mayer's parting thoughts are words from a sign hanging in his office for more years than he can recall. It's how he sees himself, and it makes clear that anyone has the ability to be a leader, that accomplishments are often as simple as determination, hard work and commitment.
"Real leaders are ordinary people with extraordinary determination."