Transitioning from dad to daughters

HOPKINTON, Iowa — Just off Quarter Road in Hopkinton sits Lango Dairy, a 170-cow dairy owned by Tim Goedken. The first-generation farm was founded in 1992 as a 44-cow tiestall operation. Goedken has expanded the herd to its current size and now milks in a double-8 parabone swing parlor. He is passing the business to his daughters: twins, Sarah and Tara, and their younger sister, Courtney.

“They’ve always been involved and had their responsibilities on the farm, so I hoped that one day maybe one of them would come back,” Tim said. “Even when they were at college, they kept showing interest in what I was doing. My first thought when they wanted to come back (was that) I was relieved.”

Sarah graduated from Northeast Iowa Community College with a degree in dairy and animal science. Tara graduated from Kirkwood Community College with a degree in agriculture business. After college, Sarah dove in full time on the farm, and Tara split time at Lango Dairy and Vermazen Tax Service in Manchester. Courtney graduated from Kirkwood Community College in May with an agriculture business degree. She also returned to farm with her dad and sisters while working off the farm at Triangle Agri Services in Monticello.

Sarah has taken on the herdsman role. Tara works with calves, milks and uses her accounting background to keep farm records. Courtney works primarily with the calves and milks, while assisting Sarah where needed. Tim still handles the feeding and crops.

Sarah and her sisters realize the opportunity that is in front of them.

“It’s very beneficial for us to have a place we can come back and start working at,” Sarah said.
“It was nice to get away, learn and meet new people and now come back. It’s a little crazy that we’re doing this, and have this opportunity at 22 and 21 years old. It’s very humbling and we’re proud of where we come from. That’s why we want to come back and work here again.”

The sisters bring with them new ideas and practices they have picked up along the way. With new ideas comes new challenges and a growing level of trust between an experienced generation, and one eager to implement change.

“You don’t want to switch things up too fast,” Tim said. “Its tough to transition away from things that have worked, but maybe weren’t as efficient.”

One of the first changes the sisters made was applying for a Choose Iowa Grant. Lango Dairy used that grant to purchase a Milk Taxi to complete the new calf barn addition that was started in 2023. They also used the grant to purchase Alta Cow Watch collars. Bringing in new technology to the farm was something the younger Goedkens wanted to implement as soon as they could.

“Before the taxi and the collars, the idea of technology like that coming to the farm was a bit foreign,” Sarah said. “We would have tried to work towards it, but Tara put in the work to fill out the application and I can’t see us ever going without it again.”

Tim is gaining confidence in the plans of his daughters.

“It’s tough to try and let go, but I trust them,” Tim said. “They are the future, so I’m a lot better at trusting them now than I used to be.”

Along with learning to trust have come opportunities to further educate and learn from decisions that were not as successful as projected.

“If we do something different than what we’ve done in the past and it fails, it becomes a teaching moment,” Sarah said. “We learn from it so we can be better. If we change something and it does well, good. But if it doesn’t do as well, we can learn from it and do better next time.”

That eagerness to learn from each other is an important aspect of the working relationship between the father and his daughters. It also has led to a better understanding of how to work with one another.

“Sometimes we can butt heads, but that’s when we realize how important communication is,” Tara said. “We’ve done things a certain way for a long time, and if you’re trying to change that, you need to communicate why you think your way is going to improve on what we’re doing.”

What brought the sisters back to the farm was the connection with each other and the farm. That especially rang true for the twins.

“When we first went to school and split up, it wasn’t easy being away from the farm or each other,” Tara said. “You had to go out in your own world. It was hard to be away. We always enjoyed each other and being outside together, so I always hoped we could come back and work the farm together.”

For Tim, the girls came at just the right time.

“I got pretty burnt out there when the girls were all in college,” Tim said. “I was trying to do it all on my own with some help from some high school workers, and it became exhausting. To have them back here, I can’t explain what it means to me.”