Submitted
The Ellis County Conservation District has selected Lyle and Lynelle Gottschalk for the 2024 Conservation Rangeland award.
Lyle started farming with his cousin Bryan Gottschalk in 1983. Their parents farmed together until they decided to split everything. After the split, the cousins started their own farming operations.
Part of the 3,000 acres Lyle owns he bought, and he inherited a quarter of land from his parents, Vernon and Jeanette Gottschalk. He wanted to build his home on the farmland he bought but when he drilled for water, he came up dry. He ended up making his home in Ellis.
In 1999 Lyle married Lynelle of Cheyenne Wells and had one son together, Kade. Kade is attending Fort Hays State University studying Agronomy and works at Nutrien. He occasionally helps Lyle on the farm. Lyle has a stepdaughter, Elexx Gnad of Kansas City, Kansas and a son, Brit Hale of Joplin, Missouri. Lyle and Lynelle share four grandchildren.
Lyle practices no-till most of the time and runs a 150-cow calf operation with 240 yearlings. The 3,000 acres he owns are pasture and farm ground. He plants a wheat milo rotation to feed his cows. Lyle likes to be working on the farm and hopes to continue until he isn’t able to anymore. His succession plan is to pass the land to his son Kade.