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Ronda Koehler
New York Mills, Minn.; East Otter Tail County

Family: My husband, Roy, and I have two sons. Matt (29) works as a driller in the oil fields. He has a daughter, Kymree (2). Our other son, Justin (26), farms with us.

Tell us about your farm. We milk 370 cows, raising about 80 heifer calves to around 400 pounds then sending them to a heifer grower and getting them back before freshening. We sell all our bull calves. We farm 600 acres of corn and alfalfa. Roy is the herdsman of the cattle working with the veterinarian, nutritionist, breeders and milkers. Roy and Justin do the crops, maintenance and mechanic work. Justin also helps feed cows, welds and beds. I take care of the baby calves and on up. Roy and I do the hiring of new employees. I do the scheduling of our seven employees, payroll and taxes, bookkeeping and billing and a lot of lawn mowing.

What's the busiest time of day for you? That would be the morning. Getting up, having a cup of coffee, checking the weather and then off to the barn to see how many new baby calves I have. It could be none or one, or I've had as many as 12 in a day. I feed, on average, 40 on milk replacer. And bigger ones on hay, grain and water. Then to the house to do computer work.

How much time do you spend doing farmwork compared to housework? That depends on how long calf chores take and if the lawn needs to be mowed or errands need to be run. Dishes, cleaning and laundry get done between computer work and making meals. But it all seems to get done.

What do you do in your free-time and why? I love working in my flower gardens, mowing grass (yes, I said mowing grass.), riding my motorcycle and bowling one night a week on a ladies league. That's my night out with the girls (after my chores are done.). I'm in the L.W.M.L. of our church, I'm chair of the New York Mills Food Shelf and volunteer there. I'm on the board of the East Otter Tail Midwest Dairy Association and am one of the dairy princess coordinators.

What's the best thing about farming? Being your own boss and being able to be home to raise our boys on the farm.

When you look back on your life, what do you want to be remembered for? Being a caring, dedicated, hardworking mom that takes pride in our farm.

Do you have any ideas that could make farming easier for you and all farming women? I would like a calf feeder to make my chores go faster and easier. And more hours in a day for all of us women to get everything done.

Tell us about your most memorable experience so far, working on the farm. The day we had a set of twin heifer calves and a set of triplet heifer calves.[[In-content Ad]]

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