AVON, Minn. — Taking on the daily tasks of dairy farming together as a family is a big part of why Paul and Becky Dobis relish dairy farming.
“It’s something that not a lot of people can do, so to me it’s a privilege to do it,” Paul said.
The high school sweethearts have been working together since they got married 16 years ago and took over the farm from Paul’s dad, Allan, and uncle, LeRoy.
Working together for a common goal was on display Aug. 14 when the family’s biggest chore was to make small squares of straw on their 240-cow dairy near Avon.
The couple has six children, Anthony, Natalie, Mark, Felix, Eve and Abigail, and the task for that Wednesday was putting up straw in the hay mow of the old barn.
“When they are young, they each have their own responsibility like chickens or heifers to feed,” Becky said. “Sometimes they forget about it. But I tell (them) they need to be fed every day because they can’t feed themselves. We try to teach them to be responsible.”
The Dobis family started their day in their usual fashion; working in their 8-row cross-ventilated barn with four robots that was constructed seven years ago.
Around 6 a.m., Paul checked to see if there were any calves born overnight and handled any health-related issues with the cows and any breeding tasks. Shortly after, with the help of Anthony, he mixed feed for the dairy herd and the rest of the animals on the farm.
Becky, who grew up on a chicken and beef farm, helped in the barn and then turned her attention to feeding calves.
“I always had an interest in it as a little girl and always said I would marry a dairy farmer,” Becky said. “It’s very peaceful, just being able to raise a family on the farm.”
Ben Schaefer, a 16-year-old who helps on the farm part time, came to the barn to help bring in fetch cows.
A short time later, Anthony and Mark made their trek to the barn to scrape the stalls and bed them with the bedding chopper.
By around 9:30 a.m. chores were complete.
Next, family put their focus on baling straw. Paul was planning to fill the hay mow of their old milking barn. Throughout the year, the straw supply goes down daily as they are used to bed the calves that are housed in the old dairy barn, and six bales are shredded each day to put on top of the mats in the cross-ventilated barn.
Dobis purchases the straw from a retired dairy farmer, LeRoy Gondringer.
After Dobis brought the tractor, baler and wagons to the field, Gondringer ran the baler.
Becky and Felix towed the loads back and forth several miles with the pickup truck, while Natalie watched her two younger sisters in the yard.
Back in the farmyard, Paul and the boys hooked up the John Deere 530 and pulled the loads to the conveyor to be unloaded.
Schaefer and Mark teamed up to unload while Paul and Anthony climbed in the dusty, warm hay mow to stack bales from the conveyor.
“The best part (of farming) is not having to drive into work and being able to work with family and being able to work for yourself,” Paul said.
In between loads, the boys hung out in the shop.
Around 4 p.m., Kameron Sand, a part time employee, arrived and went to the barn to bring in fetch cows. Paul also spent time working on breeding duties and checked over the milking herd.
Around 6:30 p.m., approximately 800 bales had been baled and the last of the six and half loads were unloaded and piled in the barn. Together, the family had accomplished their biggest task of the day.
“The biggest thing is creating good habits in (our children’s) life,” Paul said. “(We are) teaching them hard work and with hard work pays of and you get rewards in life with hard work and then spending time with family.”
The family ate supper together and started thinking about Thursday.
“It felt good to get the straw done,” Paul said. ”Just a normal day, a different job but normal day.”
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