Read about a hard-working family and 'The Wisconsin Farm They Built' | Lit Wisconsin

Lit Wisconsin is a sporadic series of stories in which we highlight the work of writers of Wisconsin or those with ties to the state.

Editor's note: This story has been changed to clarify where the farm Corey Geiger runs is located. It's in Reedsville.

Today we open the cover of "The Wisconsin Farm They Built: Tales of Family and Fortitude," a nonfiction book about the history of a family farm, written by Corey A. Geiger, managing editor of Hoard's Dairyman.

About the book, 'The Wisconsin Farm They Built'

"While this book is my family's story," said Geiger in an email interview with USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin, "(it's) also a Wisconsin story. It's a dairy story, it's a food story, and ultimately, it's a story about creating America's Dairyland."

The book is organized as a series of stories "carefully knit together," Geiger said. He used actual events and people to narrate the stories, and delves into the reasons behind the decisions real people made. Geiger's grandparents, Elmer and Julia Pritzl, are the main characters. They began to talk about their lives and their farm in 1981, when their daughter, Rosalie, and her husband, Randy Geiger, Corey Geiger's parents, became the fifth generation to operate the farm, Geiger said.

Geiger was a "sponge," he said, "soaking up the recollections as Grandpa Elmer and Grandma Julie came to the farm four, five, six and even seven times a week some summers. The stories were told not only in the house, but also while making firewood, hay, lumber and doing a host of other farm chores."

When he was a young man, Elmer was not on the path to become a farmer. After his mother Anna was killed by a train, Elmer went to work at a local foundry when he was a young teenager. By the time he was 18, he was a foreman supervising men double and triple his age during the Great Depression. But he fell in love with a farmer's daughter, Julia Burich, and when her father died a half year after their marriage, Julia's mother asked Elmer to take over the farm.

"So Elmer, born a city boy, transformed his life and began a love affair with a Wisconsin family farm," according to the book's back-cover description.

About the author, Corey A. Geiger

Geiger grew up on his family's dairy farm, and when he went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison he pursued degrees in dairy science and agricultural economics. He aimed for a career in the industry, but an internship at an Ohio dairy cooperative led him onto a writing path. Geiger and his writing ability caught the attention of a respected UW-Madison professor, scientist and cattle judge, David P. Dickson, who recommended Geiger for an opening on the editorial staff of Hoard's Dairyman. Geiger was offered a job with the industry titan 15 months before he graduated from UW-Madison.

"I've been on the staff for 28 years," Geiger said. "Here I've been able to pair my dairy and economics background into story telling."

Today, Geiger is the managing editor of Hoard's Dairyman, which publishes in English, Chinese and Spanish and is distributed in 100 countries across the world. He also has served as the president of the Wisconsin Holstein Association and Holstein Association USA.

Geiger lives in Beaver Dam, and runs a farm in Reedsville. "I own dairy cows on three Wisconsin dairy farms and grow alfalfa, corn, soybeans and wheat on our 376-acre, six generation family farm," Geiger said.

How to buy 'The Wisconsin Farm They Built'

"The Wisconsin Farm They Built" debuts on May 15. It can be preordered now for $23.99 through Geiger's website: coreygeiger.com. It also can be ordered through its publisher, The History Press, at www.arcadiapublishing.com. It's also available through most national online booksellers, and Geiger expects it to be sold at more than 150 book stores in Wisconsin and neighboring states.

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Features reporter Keith Uhlig is based in Wausau. Contact him at 715-845-0651 or kuhlig@gannett.com. Follow him at @UhligK on Twitter and Instagram or on Facebook.

This article originally appeared on Wausau Daily Herald: Author Corey A. Geiger about family in 'The Wisconsin Farm They Built'