Schroeder looks back on 38-year career

It was 1985 and Schroeder was assistant county supervisor for what’s now called the Farm Service Agency.

Schroeder was driving his then-supervisor Gene Sims, a big man who disliked the seatbelt law coming into effect that year. When they stopped, Sims described a hypothetical situation to show why he was against the law.

“We’ve just been in an accident and the car is upside down,” Sims said. “We’re in the water and the car is on fire. I’ll bet this seatbelt won’t unbuckle and we’re going to burn to death.”

Sims pushed out his belly to tighten the belt.

Then he pushed the belt’s release button. But instead of proving his point, the seatbelt worked. The belt flew free.

“That belt hit like a hammer against the windshield and I thought we broke it, but we didn’t,” Schroeder said. “He never talked about seatbelts again.”

Decades later, Schroeder smiles at the memory, but sees an analogy between the seatbelt story and farmers under financial stress due to economic conditions.

“To them, their world is upside down and they’re drowning and we work with people to get the financing they need to stay on the farm,” Schroeder said.

Schroeder is a farm loan manager for the FSA, serving people in Dodge, Douglas, Saunders and Washington counties. A proclamation from Fremont Mayor Joey Spellerberg states that Schroeder has helped countless farmers with opportunities to own land, expand their operations and persevere through financial hardships.

Now, the Fremont man is retiring after 38 years, 25 of which he’s spent as a farm loan manager.

The public is invited to a retirement open house for Schroeder from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 31 in the Dodge County Farm Service Agency office, 2450 Business Park Drive in Fremont.

Schroeder grew up on a family farm southeast of West Point. It was a diversified operation with cattle, hogs and row crops. He was in 4-H from age 8 to 18 and graduated with a degree in animal science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

After college, Schroeder went home to farm, but his father encouraged him to get a job. There wasn’t enough income from the farm to support three families: Schroeder, his parents, Jim and Marlys, and his older brother, Tim.

Jay Schroeder got a job at the Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) on March 31, 1985, and began working in Pender. Schroeder was assistant county supervisor there for nine months, before coming to work in Fremont in January 1986, where Richard Kirch was FmHA supervisor.

Schroeder remembers the 1980s Farm Crisis. Farmers weren’t getting adequate prices for their products.

“When I came in ’85, all commodity prices were poor – whether it be corn, soybeans, hogs, cattle – and (farmers) couldn’t pay the bills for farm expenses and the mortgage payments,” he said.

Many foreclosures occurred. Many people had to leave the farm.

And the analogy of the upside car on fire and in water could have been an analogy for that time period, he said.

But the FmHA helped many farmers through its programs.

Back then, many small farms had diverse operations with dairy and stock cows, farrow to finish hogs and row crops and Schroeder appreciated having grown up on a diverse farming operation.

“I had a very good background in animal production that helped (me) understand the job a great deal and work with producers,” Schroeder said.

At the same time, FmHA was involved in a rural housing program for towns with populations under 25,000. From the 1970s through the mid-1990s, many houses were built in small towns through this program. Fremont didn’t qualify, but Columbus, Blair and the town of Elkhorn did.

“We built hundreds of homes that were 1,000 square feet or less that helped families get their first starter home,” he said.

Schroeder enjoyed being part of that process from 1985-1995.

“I’ve run into two people in the last couple of years who thanked me for the loans I processed for them to get a house,” he said.

In 1995, the FmHA name was changed to Farm Service Agency. Kirch was farm loan manager and Schroeder was a farm loan officer.

Kirch retired in 1997 and Schroeder became farm loan manager in 1998.

Schroeder knows going to a government entity can seem intimidating, but that’s where his office can help.

“We visit with clients,” he said. “We work with them. We get the information and we have some very good loan programs to help beginning farmers get started and for the farmers, who are in distress, to help restructure their loans.”

He knows each client has a unique situation. Some may have faced a drought or tornado. They may have lost their farm home due to a fire.

“You need to be very compassionate and very understanding and patient,” he said.

Nebraska has 45,000 farmers. The FSA based in Fremont serves 400 clients. The FSA and banks work together to serve the clients.

Schroeder has enjoyed helping people purchase a farm or restructure their operations so they have a feasible cash flow and can meet all their family living and farm expenses and pay all their payments.

“It has been a very satisfying and fulfilling job when you help people finance what they didn’t think was possible and they go on to be successful,” he said.

He’s enjoyed asking farmers how they met their spouses or talk about their kids or grandchildren.

Schroeder remembers one farmer who said he couldn’t go into the military, because his arches were too high.

To prove his point, the farmer took off his boot and flopped his foot on Schroeder’s desk.

“See how high that arch is,” the farmer said. “They said I could not be a foot soldier so I could not get into the Army or Marines!”

Schroeder processed the loan and still remembers the man.

“It’s a memory that brings a smile to your face,” he said.

Schroeder said he has a very good staff. He appreciated the support he received from other FSA offices when his late wife, Rhonda, battled cancer from 2002 to 2007.

“The support I got from other offices to help me get the work done was unfailing,” he said.

He marvels at how technology has changed throughout the years. When Schroeder started, he worked with pencils, paper and a calculator.

“If you had an electric typewriter, you were uptown (fancy),” he said.

Schroeder said his office got computers in 1985. He remembers Kirch telling workers not to waste their time on computers, because they weren’t going to stay around for long.

Since then, Schroeder’s seen the increased computer use and, more recently, the ability for employees to work remotely. He foresees a time when workers won’t use paper at all.

He will miss his co-workers and the farmers. He looks forward to helping his brother, Tim, on the farm and hopes to spend more time with family who live in other cities and states.

Schroeder has three daughters, Hannah Davis and husband, Ryan of Lincoln; Kalli Schroeder, a traveling nurse who’s working in North Carolina; and Paige Schroeder who lives in South Falls, South Dakota, and works for a Lincoln company.

He looks forward to traveling.

And, of course, he’ll wear his seatbelt.