KELLOGG — Thirteen-year-old Dustin Sylvester is so passionate about farming that he has inspired his parents, Mike and Amber Sylvester, along with his sister, Addie, to start dairy farming on the side so he can experience production agriculture. Each day, the middle schooler sets his own alarm and is out in the barn milking cows and doing chores.
“I am hoping to start (my dairy career) right now,” Dustin said.
The Sylvesters are milking seven cows at their dairy, Solitude Acres, near Kellogg. They milk on one side of a double-6 herringbone parlor. In the next several months, they are expecting three more head to calve. They sell their milk to Elba Cooperative Creamery in Altura.
“As long as somebody will come and pick up a little bit of milk, … we’ll do it until he gets old enough to get out of school and make a career out of it if he wants,” Mike said.
Amber agreed.
“This is primarily driven by his very intense interest,” she said.
Mike had dairy farmed earlier in his career and had kept the buildings and equipment.
“I left it just like (when) we shut her down,” Mike said. “When he wanted to milk, … we fired everything back up. (We) had Advanced Dairy come out, checked our vacuum and stuff, (and) everything was good to go.”
The Sylvesters shipped their first tank of milk on Nov. 25, 2025. Previously, the Sylvesters had milked two cows in buckets and fed the milk to calves. Mike is employed as a milk hauler for Evers Dairy near Kellogg. While unloading milk, he mentioned his family’s milking endeavor to an independent hauler, Brad Von Arx.
“If it wasn’t for him, I think we’d have been done because I don’t know if we could have gotten anybody to pick it up,” Mike said. “I told him what I had going on, and he said, ‘You just tell your boy to get a little tank, (and) I’ll come pick it up.’”
Mike’s cousin, a retired dairy farmer, had a 300-gallon bulk tank that he offered for free use. Mike and Dustin cleaned it up and brought it home, and now, their milk is picked up every four days.
The farm the Sylvesters live on was originally owned by Mike’s grandparents and his uncle, Lawrence Miller. Mike grew up close by.
“I was over here every day,” he said.
When Mike was 16, his parents built a house in Wabasha, so Mike opted to move in with his bachelor uncle and help him on the dairy. After high school, Mike continued to farm alongside his uncle. They retrofitted the parlor and built the freestall barn in 2000. The cows were sold in 2008.
Mike and Amber married soon thereafter. Mike started working for Evers Dairy and rented the 110 acres of tillable farmland to the Evers family.
Amber said she figured dairy farming would make a reappearance.
“He (Mike) missed this so much,” Amber said. “Then, (Mike) had (Dustin), who, even as a little guy, … (was) just obsessed with farming and the history of this farm.”
Currently, the Sylvesters’ herd — including youngstock — is 21 animals. They started in 2022 by raising heifer calves Mike found on Craigslist, breeding the animals to sexed semen and beef and buying a few more calves.
Eventually, Mike said they may milk around 15. Dustin, however, said he wants to milk 100 cows.
“Go big or go home,” he said.
His parents, who are trying to keep the project low-stress, said that will only happen once Dustin is an adult.
“We don’t ever intend to have it be our main income,” Amber said. “We both have our jobs; (it is) mainly a learning opportunity for him to see if it’s something he’s passionate about and wants to do once he’s on his own.”
The herd is housed in the freestall barn. Mike tore out the center aisle of stalls and put in feed bunks. The cows eat purchased hay or hay made from the 6 acres the Sylvesters are not renting out. There is also storage for protein mix.
“Everything’s inside, just like the big boys, just on a small scale,” Mike said.
Mike said he has purposely tried to make a setup that is simple to maintain. Dustin can do all the chores by himself when necessary.
“He’s only 13,” Mike said. “They’ve got to be able to get their schooling done and whatever they can handle after that.”
The Sylvesters homeschool. Amber said she has had to learn to incorporate farming into Dustin’s school, like bringing his schoolwork outside or assigning him a farm budget project to learn how to balance income versus expenses.
Dustin has been showing cattle for the past three years. This summer, he showed two cattle at the Wabasha County Fair and won reserve champion showmanship with his favorite cow, Dottie. Their bovines have also provided a learning opportunity for other homeschool families in their area, with the Sylvesters leasing out four animals this past summer.
Dustin eventually wants to graze the herd. He said he imagines looking out the window and seeing cows on pasture. When he grows up, he plans to take over his parents’ farmstead.
“He’s already told us we’re moving,” Mike said.
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