All in the details

NEW MUNICH, Minn. — Although Luke Zink did not grow up on a farm he spent his entire childhood playing farm with his three brothers and working on his uncle’s dairy farm.

In their playtime, the brothers would buy and sell cows, milk, commodities and equipment and pay taxes just like real dairy farmers. Zink always paid attention to detail and adjusted some of his farm toys to be more realistic. Together, they also helped their uncle, Jerry Gill, at his dairy farm near Albany, where he milks 60 cows in a stanchion barn.

Fast-forward to today, and Zink still has that knack for detail as he creates farm items for his new business Oakdale Farm Toys. The first barn he did was similar to his uncle Jerry’s.

For many years, Zink and some of his family members would go to farm shows across Minnesota, Iowa and South Dakota. They would talk about how one could 3D print many of the pieces to make a farm display.

“We noticed at the farm shows that nobody is doing displays of a small-scale dairy farm,” Zink said. “I used to build with brass before I started 3D printing. I tried making a feed cart out of brass and I couldn’t quite get it right. Now that I have the 3D printer, I decided to give that a try. That is something that other farm toy makers don’t make because only small-scale farmers use them.”

The reason there were not stanchion or tiestall barn displays is because nobody makes the parts for those types of setups, Zink said. He decided to change that.

“Working on my uncle’s farm definitely influenced my life,” Zink said. “Now, when I am out at the farm, when I get done with chores, I take my tape measure and just start measuring stuff.”

In May 2024, Zink’s brother gave him a 3D printer as a wedding gift. Zink found a computer-aided design learning program and started making 3D-printed farm items. He started out by making chutes and gates. Then, he found a pattern for a 3D-printed cow that was realistic enough to go with his setup.

“The detail with it is unreal, you can see the hair, muscles and veins,” Zink said. “They are awesome.”

At Zink’s rural New Munich home, he has a large display to showcase his products. His display includes modified toy trucks, a stanchion barn complete with a gutter system, feed cart, stanchion total mixed ration mixer, calf hutches, individual calf pens, a blower, loading chutes and gates that are workable and durable.

Zink also makes silos, bulk tanks, manure removal equipment for a stall barn and milk pumps. In the future, he would like to make windows and doors.

“It still baffles me at the beginning of the day I can draw up a design on the computer and by the end of the day have a complete physical object,” Zink said.

In November 2024, Zink attended the National Farm Toy Show in Dyersville, Iowa, as a vendor to sell his 3D-printed items. After attending the show, Zink has sold enough products to purchase a larger 3D printer.

Zink has gotten to know other people in Minnesota who make farm displays and is working with them to offer high-quality products.

“I know a guy from Rice who makes the shell of the display barns out of wood,” Zink said. “I decided to try making stalls (on the 3D printer) because no one else is doing it.”

Zink said he is still learning and experimenting with his 3D printer to see what will work best within his displays.

“I am going to work on making interior kits for barns,” Zink said. “When it is done it will be a full-detail barn with windows and doors. It will be pretty cool.”

Zink continues to be active as needed on Jerry’s farm as well. Since October 2024, Zink has been going out to Jerry’s farm every morning to help with chores because Jerry had hip surgery and needs time to recover. By 6 a.m. he arrives to help with chores before heading to his full-time job in St. Cloud. Zink’s brothers, Cole, Zach and Isaac, and their other uncles, Joe and Tom Gill, are also filling in for Jerry until he can return full time.

“We actually enjoy (working on the farm) because we are there together and we get to joke around and just talk while we do chores,” Zink said. “We are family and that means we take care of each other. We made a point to be there for Jerry.”

Zink said while growing up, the brothers would do relief milking for 15-20 farms in the area. Today there is only one farm left on their list that is still milking.

“Everything is peaceful (on the farm), everything going on in the outside world doesn’t matter,” Zink said. “We have all moved out and have jobs of our own now but still come back and help anytime we get a call.”

Zink said helping on the farm is what inspired him to create farm displays.

“The farm is what brings us back together,” Zink said. “While we are milking, we can visit, and it brings us back to when we were kids helping Uncle Jerry.”