A day in the life of teen cousins

MAURICE, Iowa — Peyton and Jacob Maassen are sixth-generation dairy farmers, playing and working side by side each day.

Peyton is the son of Aaron and Marissa Maassen. Jacob is the son of Stefan and Miranda Maassen. Together the cousins work on their family farm, Maassen Dairy, an 1,800-cow Holstein dairy farm near Maurice. All the farm’s calves and replacement heifers are raised on the site as well.

The cousins’ athletic and musical commitments mean their farm work has to fit around their practice schedules.

As the school year is approaching, Peyton and Jacob’s typical day starts at 7:15 a.m. with band practice. Peyton, a freshman, and Jacob, a sophmore, attend MOC-Floyd Valley Community School in Orange City. Peyton plays the trumpet, and Jacob plays the trombone.

“It’s a competition field band,” Jacob said. “We have five events throughout the course of the fall.”

Band practice on Monday, Aug. 10, ran almost three hours. The band members practiced one section of their marching routine at a time, going over each section again if someone missed a kick or if they needed to work on specific parts of the music.

“This week should be easy,” Jacob said, “Last week we had band practice from 10 in the morning to 9 at night with a couple of breaks during the day.”

Directly after band practice, Peyton and Jacob ran to cross country practice, where they met their teammates for warm-ups and stretching. Since it was the first day of practice, their run was only three miles that day.

After band and cross country, they headed home for lunch before returning to the dairy.

The cousins’ regular chores include feeding calves, washing waterers, changing fly-control tape and helping the calf crew. They also assist with the newborn calves coming out of the maternity area.

At 12:30 p.m., Peyton and Jacob arrived at the farm to start their chores. Changing fly sticky tape in the barns was first on the list. Peyton had to replace the tape roll as it got knotted up, and Jacob pulled it through the post hooks.

“We replace the fly tapes a couple times a week, depending on how full they are,” Peyton said. “The (ones in the) calf barns have to be changed more often than the cow barns.”

Once they were done replacing fly tapes, the cousins moved on to washing out waterers.

“We scrub the inside because sand collects at the bottom and the outside because the manure splatters on it,” Jacob said.

Jacob filled the disinfectant spray container, and Peyton grabbed the scrub brushes. Each of them went to a different waterer to clean. They scrubbed the inside of the waterer and drained it, then sprayed the outside and scrubbed it as well. The waterers were disinfected and refilled with fresh water for the cows.

Next up, Peyton and Jacob moved on to feeding calves. About 400 calves are on milk at the farm at any given time, giving the cousins plenty of opportunities to learn the different aspects of calf care.

“We average four or five babies a day,” Aaron Maassen said.

Jacob and Peyton have been around the farm since they were young. Aaron said kids in the family typically begin helping around 8 to 10 years of age, starting with simple calf chores and gradually learning more responsibilities.

“It’s easy to have younger people help carry things and help do the smaller taks to start,” Aaron said.

The cousins used a small tractor to pull carts and water tanks to the calf barn to fill feed pails and milk bottles for the calves. They health checked the calves as they fed them by checking feed input and activity of the calf. If there is a sick calf, they let their dads know.

After calf chores were done, about 6 p.m., Jacob and Peyton were done for the day. They headed home for supper and to get ready for the next day.

The cousins enjoy many other jobs that keep them moving around the farm that are not necessarily daily chores. Haymaking and fieldwork are among their favorites, particularly jobs that allow them to operate equipment.

“Chopping hay is fun,” Jacob said. “I get to drive.”

Walking beans and chopping weeds, however, rank much lower on their list of favorite chores.

For Peyton and Jacob, the farm is also a place where family relationships run deep. Their parents are siblings-in-law, as their moms are sisters, and their dads are brothers. The boys have grown up more like siblings than cousins.

That family connection makes working together second nature. They share school activities, spend time together on the farm and tackle chores as a team.

With band and cross country now filling their mornings, the cousins have less time to spend on the dairy than they do during summer, but they continue to make time for the farm.

“There are others who work on the farm, too, but (Jacob and I) usually work together all the time,” Peyton said.

Whether they are carrying calf feed, washing waterers, running equipment, playing their instruments or racing across the finish line, the cousins are learning that a successful day often comes down to the same thing: showing up, working hard and doing their part.