GROVE CITY, Minn. — When Patti, Greg and Nathan Meyer woke up May 30, they had one main goal in mind: Put up their first-crop hay before it rained.
Nathan, who came back to the farm full time four years ago, and his parents milk 60 cows and farm around 120 acres near Grove City, Minnesota.
The Meyers were hoping to start baling May 28, but the hay wasn’t quite dry. That put a strong emphasis on securing it Thursday afternoon before the predicted rain rolled through later in the day.
“It’s stressful,” Greg said. “You have a nice crop out there, and you don’t want it to get rained on and then have it sit for two more days. That stuff bothers me. When we cut it, I didn’t think it was going to rain until Friday, and then the weather forecast changed.”
Having quality hay is a major goal for Greg.
“I don’t like feeding poor feed,” he said.
The Meyers’ focus was to do their lone field of alfalfa, a 17-acre field rented from a neighbor.
Their other fields they plowed up last fall because they had over 200 bales of baleage to carry them over. They said they like baleage because it has helped raise their herd butterfat.
The day started out with each doing their daily morning chores. Nathan and Greg headed to the barn before 5:30 a.m., and by 6 a.m., Nathan was milking and Greg started feeding calves. They milk 60 cows in a 4-row tunnel ventilated sand-bedded tiestall barn.
They added two rows to the east of the current barn in 2016. They also have calf pens at the end of the oldest part of the barn.
A short time later, Patti helped with the calves. After milking, Greg and Nathan fed the cows and the 200 steers they raise. Some are housed in a hoop barn they built four years ago, and the others are housed at another site.
By 11:30 a.m., Greg drove his John Deere 70 to the field to start raking rows together. Just 15 minutes later, Nathan was on his way to start round baling as rain clouds started to gather in the west.
“I was looking at my radar every 15 minutes, but (the rain) seemed to stay on the other side of Willmar all day,” Greg said.
By 2:30 p.m., Greg was done raking, and an hour later, Nathan had made the last round bale.
They promptly switched over to picking up the bales, hauling them a quarter mile home and getting them wrapped.
Patti and a neighbor helped Greg pick up 68 round bales and transport them home, and Nathan went home and wrapped. They were done by 5 p.m.
“I was happy, just elated that it worked out,” Greg said. “If we wouldn’t have gotten them moved, we could have picked them up Friday, but then we would have been tracking up the fields. It couldn’t have worked out any better. It was a good crop.”
The urgency of getting the hay wrapped pushed chores back almost an hour, but for the Meyers, the delay was worth it. By 7:30 p.m., it started drizzling, and shortly after 8 p.m., it started to downpour.
“I was smiling from ear to ear,” Greg said. “It doesn’t get any better than that. It was the perfect day.”
Greg’s introduction to the dairy industry came from his grandpa.
“I spent summers with him, and then when he sold his cows, I helped neighbors all the time,” Greg said.
After high school, he studied dairy management at Iowa Lakes Community College. The Meyers rented a farm near Watkins for five years before buying their current farm.
“I started with a pickup and tools and nothing else,” Greg said. “I like being here. I lived everywhere growing up.”
They have been living and milking at their current location for 30 years.
“I enjoy milking cows,” Greg said. “I just wish it was more consistent with pay. It’s stressful.”
Greg and Patti’s other children all have ties to agriculture as well. Ben is a carpenter and helps construct ag buildings, Matt works for a crop farmer and a cabinet maker, and Maggie does quality assurance for Cady Cheese. A couple years back, she was a Princess Kay of the Milky Way finalist.
“All of my kids are in agriculture, which I am proud of,” Greg said.
Nathan worked off the farm for many years but still found time to do the morning and night milking.
“I really enjoy milking, and the fieldwork is fun,” Nathan said. “There is never a dull moment. It seems like you are always doing something different.”
Nathan’s future goals are to continue to work with his parents and someday take over.
“It’s good that we have someone who wants to take on the family business,” Patti said.
To do that, Nathan will have to weather the ups and downs that farming brings.
“It was a good day,” Greg said. “They are not all like that. You have to take the bad with the good.”
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