Ellis County Conservation District
2025 Conservation Award
ELLIS COUNTY — The Ellis County Conservation District has selected Lang Cattle & Grain LLC for the 2025 Conservation Award.
Lang Cattle & Grain LLC is jointly owned by Daren Lang and his son Taylor Lang who reside in Victoria.
Daren and Taylor utilize conservation practices such as rebuilding terraces and waterways, introducing cover crops, crop rotations, planting tree rows, and being predominantly no-till since 2004.
Valerian Lang, the grandfather of Taylor, received a conservation award in 1971 for planting the existing windbreak at the farmstead. In 2018, Taylor planted an additional two rows of trees to this windbreak.
The ancestry of the Lang family in the United States can be traced to Jacob and Susanna Lang, who immigrated to Ellis County, Kansas in 1875 from Kamenka, Russia which is located near the Volga River. They established a homestead three miles northwest of Victoria where they raised thirteen children on their farm. Jacob and Susanna were the parents of Johan J. Lang, who in turn had a son named Peter J. Lang. Peter is the grandfather of Daren Lang.
Peter farmed alongside his father Johan until the late 1940s. In 1931, Peter acquired his first parcel of land near Toulon.
The land where the current farmstead is located was acquired in 1951 by Peter, with the homestead constructed in the early 1960s. It is located two miles southwest of Victoria where Taylor and Danielle currently reside.
Ultimately, Peter deeded 480 acres to Valerian and his wife Marlene.
Valerian passed away in 1988. Shortly after his passing, his son Daren started farming on his own.
Daren and his son Taylor started their farming venture together in 2008. At that time Taylor was a senior in high school and purchased his first eight cows. They have expanded that number in the subsequent years as well as the acreage they own and operate.
In 2018, Taylor and Danielle purchased the farmstead from his grandmother Marlene. That same year, Taylor and Daren established Lang Cattle & Grain LLC.
Daren was employed by United Ag Service, Inc. for 29 years and married Dana Dreiling in 1988. They are parents of three children, Taylor, Joslyn, and Katelyn.
Taylor graduated from Fort Hays State University with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Business Management. He spent a decade working at Kansas State University Agricultural Research Center and married Danielle Robben in 2013. Together, they have two children, Jentrie aged 10, and Hudson aged 7, both whom are students at Victoria Elementary School.
Daren started farming full-time in 2021, and Taylor soon joined him in 2023.
When asked about the future of Lang Cattle & Grain LLC, Taylor stated, "I would like to assist Hudson and/or Jentrie in a career in agriculture, should they wish to pursue that path."
2025 Conservation Maintenance Award
The Ellis County Conservation District has chosen Jayme and Leann Zimmerman to receive the 2025 Conservation Maintenance award.
The land that Jayme farms has been in his family for over 100 years. His mother inherited four quarters of land from her aunts and uncles, and his father inherited one quarter of land from his family. His grandparents and father both spoke fluent German.
Jayme’s parents Connie and Fern Zimmerman met and married in 1948. Jayme helped his father with the family farm part-time.
Jayme remembers when he was less than five years old moving back and forth between the family farm in Rush County and California.
The family lived on the farm until 1964 when they moved to Hays. Connie was a fireman, a farmer, and took on odd jobs to make ends meet. He continued farming until 2014. Fern passed away in 2004, and Connie passed away in 2017.
Jayme graduated from Hays High School in 1977 and Fort Hays State University in 1981 with a Bachelors in Ag Crop Science. He met and married Leann in 1981. Leann is a nurse practitioner who manages the Wound Care Clinic at Rooks County Health Center in Plainville. Jayme’s first job was working at Lightner Welding Supply. He worked as a bus driver for a short while, hauling school kids from Schoenchen to Hays and back. In 1984 he started working at the KSU Ag Research Center with Soil Scientist Carlyle Thompson.
Jayme worked at KSU Ag Research Center until 2001 when he started farming full-time. He started his own operation by renting some ground and purchased some cows from a neighbor. Now, he has his own land.
Jayme utilizes conservation practices such as putting in new terraces and waterways, rebuilding terraces, introducing cover crops into crop rotations, planting tree rows, and turning back some of the land to grass.
Jayme and Leann have six children: Jesse, Casey, Riley, Harley, Bailey, and Wendy. There are 21 years between Jesse and Harley, and they all live in Hays. Riley and Harley help Jayme with the farm. Riley farms full-time and Harley is studying to be an electrician at Fort Hays Tech Northwest. The boys have their own cattle and help Jayme with his cow/ calf operation.
In 2022, the Zimmermans built Midnight Ranch. The private home sits seven miles north of Hays and is becoming the area’s premier wedding venue. The Zimmermans manage Midnight Ranch as a family.
When not farming, working cattle, or managing Midnight Ranch, Leann and Jayme like to spend time with their fourteen grandchildren and traveling.
2025 Conservation Windbreak Award
The Ellis County Conservation District has selected Marc and Kathyrn Zolnierz for the 2025 Conservation Windbreak award.
Marc and Kathyrn were married in 2003. In 2005 they bought land from Kathyrn’s grandfather, Marcellus Leiker. Marcellus planted trees on land adjacent to Marc and Kathyrn’s parcel and was teased about the tree rows he planted not surviving. Most of those trees are still there today. The land Marc and Kathyrn live on and care for has been in Kathyrn’s family for five generations.
One day in 2005, Marc picked up a pamphlet about windbreaks in Kansas. That first year Marc dug trees out of a pasture and moved them near the house. He had to haul water to the trees for them to survive.
After that first year, Marc started ordering tree seedlings from the Kansas Forest Service’s Conservation Tree Planting Program and he plants the trees himself. He plants 25-50 trees per year. Over the years, Marc has planted more than seven hundred trees consisting of Cedars, Burr Oaks, and Locust. The Cedar trees do the best. He has planted tree rows on all four sides of the property.
Marc battles problems with the trees just like other Kansas landowners. Insects (especially bagworms), animals, and drought are a few of the problems he fights for their trees to survive.
Marc has worked for Midwest Energy for twenty years and Kathyrn has been a paraeducator at Wilson Elementary School for eight years. They have two children. Joseph is 17 years old and Emily is 15 years old.
When their children were younger, they would help with watering the trees. Marc believes this helped their children appreciate that they are planting seeds now for future generations. Marc will continue to plant trees every year in Marcellus’s spirit and will continue to care for the trees for future generations.