Barn full of Memories

John and Bette Nyman
Dassel, Minnesota

Within this feature the Dairy Star  catches up to retired farmers to talk about the ups and downs they had when dairy farming. The feature includes how each individual farm changed throughout the farmer’s career and what each has been doing since they hung the milkers up.

What year did you start farming, and what year did you retire? We started dairy farming April 2, 1992, but it was a long road to get there. It was a dream I had for 47 years. We retired Sept. 25, 2008. Bette and I got married in 1965 and looked for a dairy farm for many years and in many different areas. I worked at Sears in Minneapolis for 26 years; the catalog part closed in 1990, and I worked in construction for two years. Finally, in 1991, a farm came up for sale with a beautiful barn and a good house all in the same place. We only have 12 acres, knowing we could never buy land and machinery at our age. We found an ad in Agri-News for 40 cows near Rochester. We went to look at them, and the rest is history.

Tell us about your farm when you started and describe what it looked like when you retired, including how many cows you milked when you retired. When we started, we had to put in all the fencing and the pipeline and the water line in the barn since the barn sat empty for 20 years. We had a Farmall M and a manure spreader. We milked 40 cows all the time and had about 30 head of young stock.

What were some of the big advancements you made during your career? We were really proud of how our cows improved genetically.

What did you love about milking cows? Seeing our cows producing on our individual feeding system.

What was the highlight of your dairy career? Putting together a registered herd of Holstein cows and hosting three dairy breakfasts with the Litchfield radio station and Lynn Kettleson. To me, it was so satisfying to see the cows all clean and curried after evening milking.

What is the biggest challenge you faced in your career, and how did you overcome it? Every day was a challenge, not knowing what might happen, but one took care of it and got ready for the next day.

If there is one thing you wished you could have done differently during your farming career, what would it be? Have a good cattle dog to get the cows out of the pasture and to the barn.

What piece of equipment or technology has been introduced that you wish you had for your dairy career? We hired a friend with a skid loader several times to clean out sheds. It would have been nice to have one.

What do you miss most about dairy farming? We miss the cows and everyday chores.

What advice would you give to a young farmer today? It’s a big commitment, but if you really want to do it, it can be done.

What is your tie to the dairy industry today? We look forward to the Dairy Star. We have a good friend, Marshall Korn, who keeps us up to date on the industry, and we go to dairy auctions when available. We were active with the county American Dairy Association for many years, even after we were done milking cows.

Was retiring an easy or hard decision/transition? It was an easy decision to make since the two of us were slowing down, but it was hard to quit. I thank the Lord every day that I got to see my dream.

What have you been doing since you retired? We’ve been on 20-some bus trips in the U.S. as well as one trip to Europe. For us, that is the only way to go. We also play cards with different groups.