A day in the life of the Dubbe family

JORDAN, Minn. — Four generations, spanning nearly nine decades, of Dubbes used their hands to work together July 2 on their farm near Jordan.

The family chopped 150 acres of second-crop hay, overcame minor equipment breakdowns and did their daily chores in Scott County.

The 250-cow dairy farm is owned by Jim and Julie Dubbe and their sons, Luke and Paul. Luke is the herdsman, and Paul is in charge of fieldwork and maintenance. Jim is the farm mechanic while Julie compiles the bookwork and drives tractor.

They farm 750 acres.

The age gap of the work force ranged from Jim’s dad, 97-year-old Roger, to his great-grandchild, 9-year-old Rebecca, who is one of Paul and Alyssa’s nine children.

“It’s a real blessing to be able to work with the whole family,” Jim said.

The priority for this warm, early July day was chopping and piling haylage.

Paul kickstarted the day by arriving at the farm at 5:30 a.m. to make sure the equipment was ready. On the equipment checklist was a 400 horsepower Claas chopper, six tractors and boxes for hauling, a tractor and merger, a packing/blade tractor and a payloader for packing.

By 6 a.m., Paul was perched in the chopper to travel to the first of six fields, this one being the furthest from the yard.

“I enjoy operating about anything,” Paul said. “I really like running machines. It is fun when there is a nice crop.”

Manning the boxes were his teenage sons, Kyle, Travis and Trevor, two neighbors and Roger.

Julie merged the three rows together while Jim tended an assortment of jobs.

Paul choreographed the crew and communicated with each on placement in the fields via a two-way radio.

“It’s pretty neat,” Paul said. “I am blessed to have everybody around and have everybody working together.”

While the hay was blown into boxes in the field, Paul’s daughter, Renae, Luke and part-time employee Shannon Kolar were stationed in the dairy barn. Luke fed and scraped before helping Renae and Kolar finish milking in the double-18 parallel parlor.

Luke, who never left the farm after high school, said the opportunity to watch creation grow is a highlight of farming.

“I always like seeing creation and seeing the crops and healthy cows around that are thriving,” Luke said. “Now, I get to see kids thrive and grow in their responsibility.”

When the work in the barn was complete, Renae went with Luke to the older barn to feed the calves and heifers.

“I like working with him,” Renae said.

On a typical day, Luke feeds and milks with one of Paul’s children and one of their friends, but because of the fieldwork that needed to be done, he took on Paul’s role of scraping. 

By midmorning, adversity struck. Jim’s mechanical talents were brought to the forefront as he had to tend to a fan belt that broke on a tractor. A short time later, a power take-off shaft snapped on the merger and had to be welded into place.

“It just needs to be done, and Paul is busy chopping, so it falls to me,” Jim said. “I do enjoy fixing equipment, although I would rather that things didn’t break down so I could be hauling all day too.”

Around noon, the Dubbes moved to the fields closer to the yard and were able to decrease the number of haulers from six to three, who were Paul’s oldest sons.

Jim, with Renae sitting beside him, jumped in the payloader to help pack the highest point of the pile.

In the meantime, Luke cleaned and hauled manure out of the freestall barn.

By 3 p.m., they finished next to the yard and headed to Paul’s farm to chop the last of six fields. By 5 p.m., the chopping was complete. Two big jobs remained, however; covering the pile and night chores.

Luke, Travis and Rebecca went to the barn for milking and chores while the rest of the crew covered the pile. By 9 p.m., a long but successful day came to a close.

“It’s a relief to get it done and covered,” Paul said. “Everybody is beat, but it is a good feeling to move through it like this. I appreciate the speed of what we have now.”