Celebrating our Recent Retirees: Dan Zierke and Arlene Krohn

Posted: 2/20/2023

Our cooperative was built on the know-how and wisdom of the most senior employees. For this reason, we are saddened but also thankful whenever any of them leaves us. One long-time employee has retired, and another is retiring at the end of this year. Read their stories below. 

Dan Zierke

For most of his career, Dan Zierke has counseled farmers on what he would do, if had the money and the opportunity. Dan earned a bachelor’s degree in resource management and soils, then managed a produce farm for 10 years, growing sweet corn, snap beans and peas. In 1984, he joined KFS Co-op at Amherst Junction as an agronomist.

After 18 years there, he went to work for Olson’s crop service in Stevens Point. Eleven years ago, Dan came to work at Harmony Co-op’s agronomy plant in Unity. Of course, Harmony and Central Wisconsin Co-op merged, creating ProVision Partners Cooperative. Dan has been with us ever since.

As an agronomist, Dan has worked with ProVision Partners’ customers from Owen-Withee and Edgar on the north all the way south to Portage, Waupaca and Wood Counties. He has performed many valuable services, including helping his customers create yearly fertilizer and crop protection plans, researching which seeds work best in each field, and walking those fields during the summer to be able to make better recommendations in the future.

“I wasn’t able to farm, so working as an agronomist was a way to keep my hands in the soil—to stay in the industry by helping other people,” he states.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Dan and his wife Jane have two daughters living in Milwaukee, where they plan to move in retirement, and a son in Onalaska. They have two grandsons. Besides hunting, fishing and camping, Dan has been involved in Tai Kwon Do for 20 years and has a 5th degree masters standing in that marshal art.

Arlene Krohn

For 28 years, Arlene Krohn worked at the Pittsville Cenex Store. Most recently she managed the deli. Arlene is retiring at the end of the year.

“You couldn’t get any better than Arlene,” says store manager Karin Shafer. “She is the most dedicated, honest, hardworking person I know.“

“She always filled in when we needed her,” continues Karen. “She did a wonderful job for us, and we’re going to miss her.”

Arlene grew up in Lindsey. She went to kindergarten in Marshfield, grade school in Nasonville, and high school in Marshfield, graduating in 1979. The first summer after high school she painted trim on houses and later worked at a Burger King and a nursing home. In 1980, Arlene married Hall Krohn, and in 1988 they adopted a two-month-old boy from Paraguay. They named him Casey.

The Krohns raised two more sons. Kyle was born in 1991 and Nick in 1994. The Krohns purchased a house in Pittsville in 1993, and in 1995, Arlene began working the third shift as a cashier at the Pittsville c-store.

Later, she worked in the kitchen. “I liked the job because it was close by and I liked the people,” she comments. “We have a coffee klatch that hangs out here, and it’s always fun to listen to those guys as I’m running back and forth, putting things out in the deli.”

Arlene says she and Hall spend a lot of time with their seven grandchildren, who live in easy driving distance. “For some reason, the four-year-olds especially want to go see Grandpa and Grandma,” she smiles.