From our side of the fence

Jeremy Middendorf

Browerville, Minnesota

Todd County

70 cows

Tell us about your family. My wife, Hope, and I have four kids: Tate, 12, Ryder, 9, Harper, 7, and Emma, 4. This is the first year they will all be in school. Tate is in sixth grade, Ryder is a fourth grader, Harper is in second grade and Emma is in preschool.

What age do your children start helping with chores? They start around 7 years old.

When do they help and what farm chores do they help with? They start out by helping carry pails for the calves and water for the chickens and bed the cows. The boys help shovel feed to cows after I haul it in with a wheelbarrow.

How do you help your kids balance school activities and farm chores? We don’t get a lot of help from them during the week once school starts. We usually just do one feeding during the day, so that is done by the time they get home from school. The boys are in baseball in the spring, but that is it, because it is hard to make it work with my schedule and my wife’s schedule.

What lessons do you hope your kids will learn through their work on the farm? A good sense of work ethic, responsibility and that you have to do a job day-in and day-out. I give them a hard time when they come outside later than I told them to. It’s good for them to see where their food comes from; they already understand that we eat the animals on our farm.

Tell us about your farm. We milk 70 registered Holsteins in a tiestall barn. I am in a partnership with my dad and mom (Paul and Bonnie) and I am working toward buying them out. We grow corn and alfalfa for the cows. I am the third generation on this farm. We ship our milk to First District Association.

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Jill Bonow

Lewiston, Minnesota

Winona County

250 cows

Tell us about your family. We have two kids: Finley, who’s 7, and Ruby, who’s 6.

What age do your children start helping with chores? They’ve been doing chores with me since they were born. Slowly, they’ve started by feeding grain to calves along with milk and water.

When do they help and what farm chores do they help with? They help out after school and on the weekends. Finley helps move calves from our calving pen and helps while we bed hutches, along with feeding chickens, picking eggs and feeding the dog. Ruby helps fill bottles, and she puts them in bottle holders and tames the kittens. This summer, they started helping me clean water troughs and move cows to put in sand. They also take care of their fair calves.

How do you help your kids balance school activities and farm chores? We try to get as much done beforehand as possible. And, if we all help out, we can get it done and get to where we need to be on time.

What lessons do you hope your kids will learn through their work on the farm? The value of showing up and helping out, taking pride in their work and doing it right the first time and being responsible.

Tell us about your farm. The farm is run by my father-in-law, brother-in-law and my husband. We have three full-time employees. We milk primarily Holstein with a few Brown Swiss. We grow corn, soybean, alfalfa and rye. We enjoy showing cattle at local, state and national shows.

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Adam Hjelle

New

London,

Minnesota

Kandiyohi County

130 cows

Tell us about your family. Austin is 12 and in seventh grade. Emmett is 8 and in third grade. They are both in football, wrestling and 4-H. They enjoy hunting, fishing, downhill skiing, tubing and being on the lake.

What age do your children start helping with chores? Around age 6.

When do they help and what farm chores do they help with? Evenings during the week and weekend mornings and nights. Austin feeds heifers and steers calves and feeds the total mixed ration to milk cows. He also helps bed pens. Emmett feeds calves grain and opens and closes gates.

How do you help your kids balance school activities and farm chores? As soon as they’re both done with practice, they come out and do chores for the evening, but the chores are limited during the week.

What lessons do you hope your kids will learn through their work on the farm? Time management, patience and that hard work pays off.

Tell us about your farm. We farm with Adam’s parents, one full-time employee and a high school helper, in addition to the kids. Kelly works in Willmar as a dental hygienist. We milk 130 cows and also have 20 beef cow calf pairs.

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Tanya Christenson (pictured with daughters, Evelyn (left) and Kaylin)

Freeport, Minnesota

Stearns County

55 cows

Tell us about your family. We have five girls. Madison, 22, is just about to finish her graduate degree from North Dakota State University and works for NDSU in the ag department. Addison is 17, Jaci is 12, Kaylin is 11 and Evelyn is 7.

What age do your children start helping with chores? They pretty much help as soon as they can. They were in a stroller from infant on, and when they could walk, they started with small things like cleaning tops and carrying empty pails. By the age of 6 or 7, they start to help with milking the cows I know won’t kick them.

When do they help and what farm chores do they help with? They take turns getting up at 5 a.m. to milk in the mornings, and now with school, they need to leave by 7. Otherwise, they will help with feeding, cleaning the barn and anything that needs bedding on a daily basis and fieldwork when needed. They help milk at night, too. Evelyn helps with feeding calves. Evelyn isn’t old enough yet, but the rest drive the tractor and the Bobcat.

How do you help your kids balance school activities and farm chores? My dad is still farming, so it is helpful to have him around. I can sometimes attend school activities that fall during milking time. It’s easier to make school events that are during the day. We also own CAP Enterprise, a welding shop in Melrose, where my husband mainly works, so he is the one who usually takes and picks up the girls from activities while I am in the barn. He helps on the farm when we are busy, and I help in the shop when things are slower on the farm.

What lessons do you hope your kids will learn through their work on the farm? I hope one of the biggest takeaways for them is that there are things they had to miss out on because of the farm being a 7-day-a-week job; however, nothing can replace the amount of family time that we get to spend together because we are all here on the farm. I was also able to be home with them before they were school aged rather than putting them in daycare, and I hope they cherish that someday. I also hope they take their work ethic along with them.

Tell us about your farm. My great-grandfather started the farm in 1916. He was originally from Germany. My grandfather took over, then my father, and we are now in the process of taking over. We are still milking in the original barn my great-grandfather built with a few add-ons. It’s mainly a tie stall with some original stations that the Jerseys fit in perfectly. We turn our cows out every day, unless it’s too cold, and they pasture in summer. My girls show cattle at the Stearns County Fair and the Minnesota State Fair. We also have five horses that we enjoy riding.

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Willie Jacobson

Jefferson,
Wisconsin

Jefferson County

40 goats

Tell us about your family. I have three children. Hunter is 19, Brody is 13 and Autumn is 12.

What age do your children start helping with chores? All my children started helping at an early age. We have only been shipping milk for a few years, so we had plenty of time before this to mess around with several different animals. Hunter had 400 layer chickens when he was 10 and also got into farrowing and raising show pigs. Brody got his first goats when he was 5, and we kind of went all in on the goats. Autumn was able to buy a horse with money raised from selling a hog at the fair, so that is kind of her thing.

When do they help and what farm chores do they help with? I work off the farm, and we own several businesses. With that being said, I try to do most of the morning milking for sure. My mom comes out in the morning to help feed babies and water pens of goats. I rely heavily on my kids for help. If I can't milk, they are on it — no questions asked. Hunter is taking on more and more responsibility, and he pretty much keeps everything running smoothly when I can't be there due to work and when Brody and Autumn are in school. Everyone really works well together. Brody typically milks, Hunter feeds hay and grain and runs the skid loader and Autumn feeds babies and is in charge of the young animals and, of course, the kittens and her horse.

How do you help your kids balance school activities and farm chores? I fully understand they have events we need to be at. Our kids have always been in the school plays, and we are a big cross-country family. We will modify the milking schedule to make it work. We may milk two hours early so we can all be done to go to a cross-country race. It is not a big deal; the goats are fine with the adjustments. You just have to be willing to get up earlier or stay up later to make it work out.

What lessons do you hope your kids will learn through their work on the farm? I want them to not be afraid to work hard for what they have or want. I want them to be kind and humble and have confidence in themselves and their decision making. I involve the kids in absolutely every decision on the farm, from financial to breeding and genetics to feed and nutrition. They are learning all aspects of business management to help prepare them for a successful future.

Tell us about your farm. My wife, Laura, and I bought our farm in 2013 in rural Jefferson County near Jefferson. We have 75 acres, and we milk dairy goats and ship our milk to Saputo Inc. We plan on continued growth and hope to be milking 150 head by 2027.

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Dana Kelly and Gary Swain

Cambridge,
Wisconsin

Dane County

25 cows

Tell us about your family. We have three children. Danny Swain is 18, Bella Kelly is 15 and Lena Swain is 14.

What age do your children start helping with chores? The kids all started "helping" with chores once they were big enough to not need a playpen or stroller — around 4 years old. They started helping their grandma feed calves and eventually graduated to doing all the work with Grandma supervising. Small farms allow kids to have more hands-on work with livestock. Today, they do the afternoon calf chores without any adult involvement.

When do they help and what farm chores do they help with? The kids all help after school by doing the calf chores. They also help milk, clean the freestall barn and mix feed every night. During the summer, they help with baling hay.

How do you help your kids balance school activities and farm chores? This is a challenge for our family. All of us are very involved in our community, so we keep incredibly busy. As parents, we generally don't expect the kids to put the farm before sports. There will be plenty of years for them to farm. The opportunity to play varsity sports or be in the high school musical is limited. Luckily, our three kids don't have too many overlapping commitments, so when one has practice or a game, the other two are usually available for chores. The exception to that would be 4-H and FFA. All three kids are involved with 4-H and FFA as officers and on the dairy judging teams. When they are at contests or practices, the parents pick up their slack. All three kids showed at the county fair, state fair and other shows this summer that kept them all away from the farm at chore time for days at a time. That is another benefit of a small farm: There isn't so much work that one of us can't step in and do their chores once in a while.

What lessons do you hope your kids will learn through their work on the farm? The most important lesson you can learn from any small business is that, when you don't do your job, there are consequences. If they don't feed the calves, the calves might not eat; that gravity is an important lesson. Knowing the work has to be done on a schedule emphasizes there are responsibilities with serious ramifications when they are not fulfilled. It's not just their parents depending on them. Little baby calves are depending on them, too. Another important lesson we want our children to internalize is the importance of being good stewards of the land. Not all land is suitable for agriculture, and it is a privilege to have high-quality farmland we can use to feed our neighbors. We have a responsibility to protect it and preserve it for its best use: agriculture.

Tell us about your farm. We have a 22-cow tiestall barn with a pipeline and a freestall loafing shed. We farm 120 acres of alfalfa, corn, soybeans and wheat. Our milk is shipped to Foremost Farms. The kids are the fifth generation on this farm. Their uncle, Scott Swain, is also heavily involved in the daily operations.

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Amber and Aaron Kluck

Rosholt, Wisconsin

Portage County

100 Cows

Tell us about your family. We have five children, ages 14, 12, 10, 8 and 6.

What age do your children start helping with chores? Our children start helping with certain chores as soon as they can walk, since we also have other small animals. All our children have loved being around animals since they could first talk and walk, so they enjoy taking care of them in any way they can.

When do they help and what farm chores do they help with? They usually help with chores whenever they are able, but mostly for afternoon milkings. Without going into great detail, this includes feeding calves, setting up whatever needs to be, washing cows during milking, scraping manure, cleaning pens and various other chores (all age-appropriate, of course).

How do you help your kids balance school activities and farm chores? We homeschool our children, so that does make it easier to balance school and farm chores. All our kids have various animals of their own, so they spend a lot of time working with them. Being home helps with this, for when they get free time to do so.

What lessons do you hope your kids will learn through their work on the farm? Through work on the farm, we hope that our kids will always be selfless, have a good work ethic and use common sense.

Tell us about your farm. Our dairy farm consists of 100 cows, mostly Holsteins. In addition to the cows, we also have sheep, chickens, ducks, a pony, dogs and cats.

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Claudia Hardie-Quall

Blair, Wisconsin

Trempealeau County

40 cows

Tell us about your family. My husband, Andy, and I have two boys. Cedric is our oldest; he’s 5 and in kindergarten. Our youngest, Jamesen, is 2.

At what age do your children start helping with chores? Both of our boys have been out and about on the farm since they were itty-bitty, going for walks, petting calves and kitties and riding in fully-enclosed cabbed skid loaders and tractors with their dad. They began completing “specific-to-them” farm chores, with some assistance, by the age of 2.

When do they help and what farm chores do they help with? In the mornings and afternoons while Cedric is at school, I will go outside with Jameson so he can put out food for the kitties and our dog, Marshmallow. He also enjoys filling their water bowls with the hose, as well as the chickens', horses’ and ponies’ water buckets. However, I believe Jamesen’s favorite chore is to collect the chicken eggs. He has a great eye for finding the hidden ones.

Cedric helps with chores during the evenings on weekends, holidays, occasional school evenings and during the summer. He feeds hay to calves, fills their water pails and, with a little support from Mom and Dad, sets up stop wires and opens gate handles to turn out cows to the new pasture paddocks.

Both boys enjoy riding on Dad’s shoulders to get the cows from the pasture and riding in fully-enclosed cabbed skid loaders and tractors to complete field work and other farm tasks. We have children’s shovels, pitchforks, scrapers and rakes so they can follow along, feeding and cleaning at their own scale and pace. They also enjoy picking garden produce and stacking firewood.

How do you help your kids balance school activities and farm chores? Our cows are not located on the same property as our home, which adds a challenge to our schedule. As a result, we have tried a variety of strategies to help maintain a balance between school and farm chores. Last year, when Cedric was in half-day 4K, we implemented an 8-hour/16-hour milking schedule so road time to the dairy could coincide with school drop off and pick up. After dropping Cedric off at school, we would start our morning milking at 8 a.m. and pick him up upon the completion of morning chores. However, we still started our evening milking at 4 p.m. so we could get done early enough for an appropriate bedtime.

This year, we have hired a neighbor to help milk cows so we are able to utilize an approximate 12-hour/12-hour milking schedule. However, to help make sure that Cedric doesn’t get overtired, we only have him come to the dairy for evening chores on days that he is not in school. At these ages, neither boy is helping with early morning chores.

What lessons do you hope your kids will learn through their work on the farm? By working on the farm, I hope my kids will learn the importance of hard work and grit. I want them to understand that through effort and perseverance, they can work to reach their goals. I want my boys to see the awe of new life but recognize its fragility. I hope that, by having an active part in raising food, they acquire an appreciation for the work that goes into producing food and recognize the sadness in food waste. I also want them to know the importance of family and faith in farming, that a lot of what happens in farming is out of our control and that one should turn to God and family to move forward in times of challenge.

Tell us about your farm. My family and I have a registered, mixed-breed herd of approximately 40 cows. We ship our milk to Organic Valley’s Grass Milk. We farm about 280 acres, 125 of which are primarily used as pasture.