A FAMILIAR FACE LEADING THE WAY. Following childhood dreams of becoming a farmer – like her father – Danielle Endvick has stepped up to the helm of Wisconsin Farmers Union. (Endvick and  family at Runamuck Ranch, their Chippewa County beef farm. Shot by Photography by Berglane)

Just over one month ago, Wisconsin Farmers Union (WFU) announced Julie Keown-Bomar – the organization’s executive director for nearly a decade – would be ending her chapter with WFU, entering retirement as Danielle Endvick transitioned into the role.

For active WFU members, Endvick is a familiar face: after joining the organization over 10 years ago, she served as communications director followed by her most recent role as director of development. Even prior to her organizational involvement, Endvick was still a friendly face around Chippewa County, having grown up on a local dairy farm.

At 17 years old, after an entire childhood spent dreaming of becoming a farmer – as two generations of her family before her had done – Endvick’s father urged her to pursue something else.

In a 2017 op-ed published in The Cap Times, Endvick recounted her father’s hard-to-hear thoughts, shared plainly while working in their Chippewa County milkhouse: “I don’t think there’s a future for you in dairy farming,” he said.

So, in a recent conversation, I asked Endvick how she ended up in the farming industry anyway. That story begins with Endvick working as a journalist with The Country Today, a statewide agricultural publication.

Heeding the advice her father gave, then-teenager Endvick decided to go to college. She attended UW-River Falls, majoring in marketing with an animal science minor – a nod to her dairy farm roots. Her career in ag journalism became one of the first stepping stones toward her current role with WFU.

Endvick told me about the humble dairy she had grown up working, as her father had before her. Split Ridge Dairy informed much of Endvick's identity and showed her what community could look like: the milk truck driver showing up daily at the farm; feed delivery with folks coming out to visit from the feed mills, where her father also worked; and the farmland backdrop to most of the conversations and time spent with her single father.

“Straight out of college, I had the best time exploring all of the different angles of Wisconsin agriculture,” she said. “I was also covering some of the events of different groups in Wisconsin agriculture and what they were up to. That’s when I stumbled into my first Wisconsin Farmers Union meeting, and it was kind of like an awakening for me.”

Endvick joked she was often the “only ponytail in the room,” working as a young journalist. She was certainly not out of her depths, coming to the table after growing up on a northern Wisconsin dairy – and seeing it end.

She told me about the humble dairy she had grown up working, as her father had before her. Split Ridge Dairy informed much of Endvick’s identity and showed her what community could like: the milk truck driver showing up daily at the farm; feed delivery with folks coming out from the feed mills to visit, where her father also worked; and the farmland backdrop to most of the conversations and time spent with her single father.

Community was about face-to-face connections, working your tail off alongside likeminded people, and finding the good in every day with some laughter along the way.

I think we have untapped potential for local food in the Chippewa Valley. –Danielle Endvick, WFU executive director

“I walked into my first Farmers Union meeting and was really impressed,” she recalled. “I felt like they had such a clear picture of the things we should be celebrating in agriculture, but also what they were working on to try and improve some of those challenge points too that were happening. I kind of fell in love with the people who were out there doing the work.”

In her mid-twenties, Endvick tossed her name into the ring when WFU posted its communications director job opening. Once WFU welcomed her onto the team, she never looked back.

“Well, actually, I did leave for a very brief stint. We call it my 'boomerang sabbatical,’ ” she added. Nonprofit burnout is no rarity, and something Endvick experienced a few years ago. Yet, weeks later, she realized she couldn't stay away from what felt like a true calling – and since then, has only kept her foot on the pedal.

Endvick has transitioned to lead Wisconsin’s second largest agriculture organization in a particularly interesting era – one that perhaps calls for more community building and aggressive advocacy than envisioned just one year ago.

Coming out of COVID-19, many people had become introduced to or were refocusing on the importance of local food and how modern food systems were operating. "I think that's been really interesting, and spurred into an era where (people understood) the worthwhile investment in things like infrastructure and local, deeper connections in the food system," Endvick said.

Endvick chatting with Volume One at Market On River (128 W. River St., Chippewa Falls), walking through the in-house Valley Burger Co. restaurant. (Stills by Alex Barber)

In 2022, WFU announced its purchase of a 120-year-old building standing at the corner of Island and River Street in Chippewa Falls, which would become a multi-million dollar, award-winning project and WFU's current headquarters: Market On River.

Then, at the start of 2025, a new political administration made sweeping shifts impacting federal funding, programs, and introduced new tariffs. 

Referring back to Endvick’s 2017 op-ed, I read an excerpt of it back to her: “Some days I’m thankful for the foresight Dad had. A lifetime in the dairy industry told him that we were on a runaway train that was only headed for heartache. Other days I’m angry. Angry that I didn’t try to fight it out and do what I love, no matter how hard the struggle. … I’m angry at a system that has been broken for so many years.”

In the years since she penned that op-ed, much has changed, both for the better and not. “Are you still angry?” I asked.

“I don’t know if it’s anger so much as sorrow,” she replied. “I’ve learned from a great organizer, Farmers Union member Tom Mosgaller, that anyone who’s trying to do this advocacy work, to make things better for the next generation, is likely fueled a little bit by a cold anger.

“So, yeah, I think I carry a little bit of that. But I’ve been able to launch it into something that feels really beautiful, too.”

Endvick speaks warmly of WFU’s community and grassroots efforts. Her feelings of sorrow for what once was – for her own family’s dairy, for the countless others that have since shuttered – have turned into the embers fueling a life dedicated to advocacy, organizing, and building community around shared values.

I'll always be a dairy farmer's daughter at heart, and I have so much love for that Wisconsin tradition – and the hope of really preserving family farms moving forward. –Danielle Endvick

The line between her professional and personal life is blurred, if not more than. Moments of quiet are found on farmland in Chippewa County, hikes at the Chippewa Moraine area and Ice Age Trail, and Irvine Park with her family. Endvick's family visits Market On River often; her children make memories at WFU's Kamp Kenwood, and her husband's own dairy farm roots complement hers.

“I think we have untapped potential for local food in the Chippewa Valley,” Endvick said. “We’re finding hope in some of the really cool work happening in food systems, trying to connect farmers directly into supply chains; I look around and see things like Together Farms’ Burger Night (events), farm-to-table restaurants, and the work we’re doing at Market On River."

Today, Endvick and her family – her husband, Jesse, and their two young boys – operate Runamuck Ranch in Chippewa County. Endvick's family purchased the dairy she had grown up on years ago, continuing the Wisconsin family-farm legacy with her own children. Her dad now lives on neighboring land, where his parents lived before him.

Endvick is aided by a lived-and-learned outlook on Wisconsin agriculture, and a refreshing sense of humor, enhancing her ability to connect with others. She holds an unmistakably Chippewa Vallian sense of pride alongside what is, clearly, an ingrained dedication to her work, community, and family.

“I’ll always be a dairy farmer’s daughter at heart, and I have so much love for that Wisconsin tradition – and the hope of really preserving family farms moving forward.”

Learn more about Wisconsin Farmers Union at www.wisconsinfarmersunion.com. Visit its headquarters, Market On River (128 W. River St.), a multi-use building in downtown Chippewa Falls. Connect with Wisconsin Farmers Union on social media (@WIFarmersUnion).