A change of plans

BROWERVILLE, Minn. – Alicia Thurk Hiebert and Jared Hiebert had resigned themselves to not having children, but then the unexpected happened.
The couple welcomed their daughter, Elaina, July 28.
Filled with joy but without the luxury of time to slow down, Alicia and Jared swooped her up into their farming rhythm.
“Since Elaina turned 3 weeks old, she’s been going out with me,” Alicia said.
Alica, 42, and Jared, 48, milk 40 Holsteins and a few Jerseys in a tiestall barn on their farm near Browerville. Jared works off the farm full time and crop farms 900 acres.
Jared helps with morning chores until he needs to leave for his job as the manager of a fertilizer plant in Clarissa. Elaina sleeps while Alicia milks cows, using a baby monitor to keep track of her daughter. During the afternoon chores and evening milking, Elaina comes along. When Jared gets home again, he helps milk cows and sometimes heads out after for fieldwork. Elaina is in her stroller or relaxing in her favorite spot, a swing by the bulk tank.
“She loves her swing,” Alicia said. “I don’t think she’s even once fussed in it.”
After the couple married in 2016, they did not consider having children.
“Given both of our ages, and since we needed to figure out how to get both of our schedules to work, we knew we didn’t want kids right away,” Alicia said.
Then, Alicia began having health problems, mostly due to Crohn’s disease.
“It became fairly evident that (having children) was not what we were going to do,” Alicia said. “It was a lot for me just to figure out my autoimmune issues and dietary challenges.”
Life went on in a busy pattern until December 2021 when Alicia started to feel odd.
“I had enough signs that I started to wonder, but I had gotten pretty accustomed to my body doing weird things,” Alicia said.  
Alicia decided not to say anything to Jared until she took a pregnancy test. At first, Jared did not know what was going on because Alicia was crying as she tried to tell him the results.
“It was a pretty big surprise,” Alicia said.
The pregnancy was not without its complications, but Alicia’s autoimmune issues improved dramatically.
Friends and neighbors gave them all the baby equipment and supplies they needed. When Elaina was born, both sets of grandparents and other family members helped with the farm and with babysitting. Now, life has gotten back to its rhythm; only, it has a bit more meaning.
“Everyone is so excited for Elaina because she gets to grow up on a small farm,” Alicia said. “That’s not a thing that many kids get to do anymore.”
Alicia and Jared met seven years ago on a dating website. Alicia teased Jared when describing her first reaction to his site profile.
“I read about his interest in agriculture, and he seemed normal enough to talk to,” she said.
Jared also noticed Alicia’s similar interest.
“I thought, well, maybe this could work because (agriculture) is all I do,” Jared said.
Alicia had held back some details in her profile.
“At first, she didn’t say that she milked cows,” Jared said. “In the relationships I had earlier, ag was always a problem. A lot of people who grew up around here wanted to leave, and I had no intention of leaving.”
Jared had grown up near the Twin Cities until his parents bought a dairy farm a mile away from Jared’s grandparents’ farm. Jared liked the change and wanted to stay in the area after he graduated.
“I did not want to dairy,” Jared said. “But, after living in Coon Rapids for my first 16 years, I did not like the cities at all. You can hardly get me to go there now.”
Jared was hired at the fertilizer plant as a custom applicator and became a certified crop advisor. He is now manager and has been at the plant for 27 years. He bought his parents’ farm in 2003.
Meanwhile, about 35 miles away on her family’s dairy near Villard, Alicia was renting the farm from her parents and purchasing the cows. She also judged cattle shows at county fairs and helped coach the University of Minnesota’s dairy cattle judging team.
Alicia’s and Jared’s busy lives went on separately until their connection in 2015. In 2016, they bought their current farm. The farm is located next to Jared’s family’s farm. Alicia brought her cows to their new farm, and they merged their lives.
Experiencing the life-changing event of the birth of their daughter has not thrown the couple too many obstacles. Their busy lives have taught them that some things cannot be planned for until the moment arrives.
“When I’m at work, I do a lot of planning, but when you’re dealing with four floaters and three sprayers and trucks and everything else and you’re coordinating all of that, all you do is move and adapt,” Jared said. “I just kind of roll with it. In the last four or five months, I have tried intentionally not to make plans.”
Alicia agreed.
“It’s not going to be too much longer where the swing isn’t going to work for her,” Alicia said. “I have no idea what’s going to work then, so we’ll just have to figure it out as we go along.”
Embracing life’s surprises is one of the first life lessons Elaina will learn by her parents’ example.