Nick Seitzer
Year in School: Junior
Major: Agricultural Science and Agricultural Food and Business Management
Hometown: St. Peter, Minnesota
Dairy Background: I grew up as the fifth generation on my family’s crop and dairy farm where we milk 65 Registered Holsteins. I fell in love with everything about cows and farming at a very young age. I can still remember my first job as a kid on the farm; it was sweeping manure into the gutter of our tie stall barn as my dad was milking. Luckily, my parents introduced my brother and I to 4-H and from there my passion for the cows really took off. Through this I was able to meet two lifelong best friends. In middle/high school I started to compete in dairy judging through 4-H and FFA. Throughout the years dairy judging has allowed me to see so many different places and experience so many different things and I’m very grateful for that. If there is one thing in my life that I would have to say shaped me the most it would have to be my background in dairy.
Why did you decide to take on a leadership/executive position in the club? The Gopher Dairy Club has always been on a fairly short list of things on campus that I wanted to dedicate myself fully too in order to make a real difference. I think that the Gopher Dairy Club has a very positive reputation at the University of Minnesota and it really makes me feel good that I can do my small part to represent the club and to help it succeed moving forward.
How are you involved on campus and in Gopher Dairy Club?Beyond the Gopher Dairy Club I’m involved in the Delta Theta Sigma fraternity, Ag Business Club, National Agri-Marketing Association, Minnesota Royal Executive Team, University of Minnesota Dairy Judging Team, and Fasting For Friends, a small non-profit organization that is focused around aiding food shelves in Minnesota. In the Gopher Dairy Club I have had the privilege of co-operating the Gopher Dairy Bar at the Minnesota State Fair, helping with the dairy camp committee and being a Gopher Dairy Camp counselor.
What are your future plans after graduation? After graduation I hope to work in the dairy industry for 5-10 years doing something where I will be interacting directly with dairy farmers. Then at some point I plan to return to my family’s dairy farm. I have a lot of ideas for the direction that I want the farm to go in and one of these potential directions involves marketing my own brand of gelato.
If you could be one dairy product, what would you be and why? I would like to be whipped cream because it just makes life so much better.