Three generations of blue and gold pride

CHATFIELD, Minn. — When Dale Hinckley first donned the iconic blue jacket over 60 years ago, he started a family FFA tradition that continues to his grandchildren. Dale served in officer positions in the St. Charles FFA Chapter as secretary, sentinel and president, and won Minnesota star farmer for his flock of 50 ewes.

“I like the whole concept of FFA and ag in the classroom,” Dale said. “In FFA, we had everything from showing cattle to speaking and everything in between. I think that’s helped me develop (to) stand up in front of a crowd and speak and get out of (my) comfort zone. And I think to this day, it’s still helping me.”

Dale and his wife, Marlys, who received an honorary chapter degree from Chatfield FFA, milk just under 600 cows in partnership with their sons, Matt and Adam. The family milks three times a day in a double-12 parallel parlor. They also farm around 5,000 acres that they own and rent. Their daughter, Paula Bauer, and her husband, Tony, live nearby and raise the farm’s heifers and care for the dry cows. The Hinckley’s other daughter, Holly Thompson, dairy farms with her husband, Donny, near Plainview.

Paula, Holly and Adam all participated in FFA. The Bauer children — Jax, Bethany, Ella and Brooke — participated in FFA, as did the Thompson kids — Nick, Katie and Clara. Now, Adam’s sons, Chase and Bentley, are active as well. Matt was unable to do FFA as his school did not have a chapter at the time, and his children also did not participate in FFA.

The Hinckley family has lived through many changes to FFA, from Dale’s era when it was just open to farm boys to today’s broader membership and focus.

“Now it’s really growth for any kind of leadership,” Paula said. “It’s really important for those (non-farm) students to see that agriculture encompasses a lot more than just production agriculture.”

Adam and his sons were both inaugural participants in their respective FFA chapters. Adam joined FFA in eighth or ninth grade when the Chatfield FFA Chapter was rechartered in 2000. Dale sat on the committee that got the chapter restarted. Adam said one of the best things about his FFA experience was watching the Chatfield FFA Chapter grow and continue to be strong today.

Now, Adam’s sons are having the same experience. In the 2024-2025 school year, Hope Lutheran High School in Winona started a chapter and Chase and Ben joined.

Though not members of a new chapter, Paula and Holly had a special start to their FFA careers as well. Encouraged by a friend and one of their dad’s cousins who was their age, Paula said they decided to transfer to St. Charles, in part so they could join FFA.

“That was a big push as to why to go there, versus anywhere (else),” Paula said.

Paula joined FFA mid-way through her senior year and went to state in meat judging. Showing cattle was also something Paula enjoyed, and FFA made her eligible for more shows. Paula also did a project for the state FFA science fair on milk bacteriology and mastitis with a vet clinic in St. Charles. She won the contest, earning scholarship money to attend the University of Minnesota.

After her FFA experience was completed, Paula volunteered time to FFA by coaching dairy judging and sales and helping with officer interviews for the Hayfield school district, even before her children were old enough to participate in FFA.

“I was encouraging a lot of students to be in it, not just my own,” she said.

As a dairy coach, Paula remembers one year where she had a team with only two youth who had dairy experience.

“The rest of whom I was coaching were kids who had never even seen a cow before until I got a hold of them,” Paula said.

Bethany, like her mom, enjoyed showing dairy cattle in FFA and counts this as one of her favorite memories. She also participated in the dairy cattle evaluation and management Career Development Event with her sisters. Jax also participated in the CDE. He said some of his favorite memories in FFA were going to the leadership camps.

“I enjoyed most all of (FFA),” Jax said. “It was a good way to meet people who were the same age as you and had the same kind of interests and aspirations.”

One of his biggest accomplishments was being named Minnesota FFA Star in Agricultural Placement for his work on a neighbor’s dairy. For the contest, he kept records of pay stubs, animal health, and stayed knowledgeable about the dairy operation.

Today, like their cousins before them, Chase and Bentley are active in dairy cattle evaluation and management, and they said their goal is to win the state contest.

Adam said his sons’ FFA adviser, Deb Ellinghuysen, is a knowledgeable coach and well-connected with other coaches in the area. The Hope Lutheran team practices alongside the Rushford-Peterson FFA Chapter as well as the St. Charles FFA Chapter, which won the national competition last fall.

“(I think) that’s cool, that other chapters can work together with somebody that’s really good,” Adam said.

Training together means friendly competition on judging days.

“I really enjoy getting to go to the competitions,” Chase said. “A lot of the people that we compete against are our friends who are from this area. … Who we practice with, we get to judge against.”

Bentley enjoys similar aspects of FFA.

“I like dairy judging and meeting new people and going to the conventions,” he said.

Now that Dale and Marlys have passed down a heritage of FFA, they are slowly trying to transition the dairy farm.

“It takes a lifetime to build a farming operation, and it takes another lifetime (almost) to get it to your children,” Dale said.

Dale and Marlys are also great-grandparents, so a fourth generation in FFA is a possibility through Jax’s daughter, Lydia, who is 8 months old.

“I’d maybe encourage it, but I wouldn’t force,” Jax said. “You want them to make that choice themselves.”