Faces & Places in the Country

Tell us about your farm. Our farm is located in Belle River, Minnesota. We live on 120 acres. The land is split up into 92 tillable acres that we grow corn and soybeans on. The building site sits on about 10 acres, and there are about 18 acres of meadow grass. We raise beef cattle and butcher chickens. Currently, we have 25 head of cattle and 50 butcher chickens. We enjoy planting fruit trees in our yard; we have four apple trees and two plum trees and plan on adding two pear trees this spring.

What are moments during the year that you really cherish being on the farm? I enjoy having the help of my dad, Lonny, and children while working on the day-to-day things that need to get accomplished. With having a day job, it is amazing to have a Dad who is able to help to keep things rolling while I am at work. You could never put a price on all the help that he provides. Calving season is another time of year that is very enjoyable, it is probably my favorite. It is so fun to see each year’s new calf crop. Planting season is always a fresh start to a new crop cycle and is a new opportunity to see if you can grow a higher yielding crop than the year before. Hauling cattle to pasture is always a nice time of year, as the daily chore routine of grinding hay and feeding grain give way to self-reliance as the cattle forage on grass for about four and a half months. In the fall, picking ripe fruit off of the trees in our yard is also a nice treat. Fall harvest and getting the fields tilled for the year is always a comforting feeling, knowing winter is coming, and the cows come home from pasture.

What are some accomplishments you are proud of? I am proud of improving drainage and cleaning up field edges around the perimeter of the farm. It is so rewarding to see all the projects a person works on over time add up to large improvements. It is probably the most expensive and time consuming to do building maintenance, but with a construction background and the help of family, friends and neighbors, you can tackle some pretty big projects like reroofing one of the barns on our farm.

Tell us about your daily routine on the farm. During the summer months, when the cattle are on pasture, there really isn’t a lot for chores. A typical day would consist of going to work at Panther Distillery in Osakis, where I am the manager of the Osakis side of the business. After my work day at Panther is done, I get home, work on maintenance of tractors and equipment and try to keep up with weed control around the field edges and pasture. Summer is a time to build new fence and make upgrades to existing fence. Some evenings are spent hauling hay home from the fields. In the winter months, my day starts with shredding a bale with the bale buster, and then it’s off to my day job at Panther. After I return home, I feed grain and walk through the cattle to check them over. Beef cattle are very hardy and seldom need much extra attention, which makes them ideal for someone with a job off the farm. As calving season starts, I make sure that the cattle have a nice bedded area and make sure all the calf shelters are freshly bedded.

What is the hardest and best part of your day? I want to be careful when I say this, because I enjoy and appreciate my job at Panther Distillery, but my true passion is construction and farming. It seems trivial to say that going to work outside the farm is the hardest part of my day, but for those of you who work full time outside of the farm and farm, you know what I am talking about. When you have a passion for something it just brings an elevated joy to your life. When you are working on the farm, you can put in twice the hours and feel twice the reward because you are putting 100% of your efforts directly into your farm operation. There is also a peace that comes with life on the farm. Don’t get me wrong: There are still plenty of stressful times when it comes to cutting, baling and hauling hay, tilling ground, planting and harvesting, but overall, it’s a great way of life and a great place to raise a family.