A day in the life of the Meyers

KENYON, Minn. — October can be a hectic month for Andy Meyer as he strives to balance harvest and attend his children’s sports games. 

One of those busy days was Oct. 13, when the family had planned to take in 5,000-6,000 bushels of corn. When an auger motor stopped working on the grain dryer, that effort yielded just 2,000 bushels. 

“Like most days, you have a plan, and by noon, the plan changes three times,” Andy said. “We still had a successful day of taking in what we could.”

The Meyers milk 130 cows with two Lely robotic milkers and farm 600 acres near Kenyon. Andy and his dad, Alan, are co-owners of the farm. Andy has been full time on the farm since he graduated from college in 2009. Andy’s wife, Sam, and their three children help as needed on the farm outside of school; Sam also works part time as a registered nurse in Faribault. 

“Being a nurse, you are constantly tending to the needs of those around you,” Sam said. “When I’m home and driving a tractor, I get to pick what music I listen to, how fast I can go. I can take my time, and it is just me.”

Andy and Sam started their day at 7:20 a.m. by helping the kids get on the bus. From there, Andy checked on the grain dryer and saw that it was not working. Then he headed to the barn and pushed five cows through the robot, bred three cows, washed and did daily maintenance on the robots, and pushed up feed. 

By 9 a.m. Andy was done in the barn and went to work on mixing two batches of partial mixed ration for the day. He then mixed a combination of soybean meal, ground corn, and other additives, which is done once a week, as an alternative to pellets in the robots. 

He was also working in runs for parts for the grain bin auger motor. He said he drove about 90 miles in total but never went more than 20 miles from home by checking with neighboring farmers and stores in town. 

After Andy got the soybean grain bins closed and sealed, he helped Sam set up to start stalk chopping. 

“I try to drive the stalk chopper as much as I can; that is my favorite job,” Sam said. “You can’t really mess it up, and you can kind of go at your own pace.”

Sam said she enjoys fieldwork.

“It’s always fun when Alan is driving the combine,” she said. “Andy is hauling wagons and we are all out in the field together doing our own thing.”

Right after lunch, Alan drove the CASE IH 2388 combine while Andy hauled boxes with an MX 255 and MX 275. Since the motor was still not working, the duo was only able to fill all the wagons they had. The corn yielded 230 bushels per acre that day, Andy said.

“It’s exciting to have high-yielding corn,” Andy said. “You work hard all year to get a good crop. We don’t have any irrigation, so picking the right hybrids and having timely rains makes all the difference. This year, we got a nice rain every week or two. It was a great year.”

Not having the pressure to get as much as possible done in a day turned out to be beneficial, as Alan had lined up to have a family friend, who is in hospice, ride along in the combine for a portion of the afternoon. The friend had never been inside one before. Since most of the wagons were full by the time the friend arrived, Alan drove the combine up and down the field to give his passenger a sense of what it was like farming today.

“Alan is a very good friend and known for his kindness,” Sam said. “It was the perfect day for a combine ride.”

The Meyers grow 250 acres of corn, and 50% of their corn goes towards feeding their herd while the rest is sold as dry corn to the ethanol plant in Claremont.

The wagons were full by the time the Meyer children got off the bus. Sam and Andy spent some time with the children until Andy went to do barn chores at 4 p.m. In the barn, he pushed up five cows and pushed up feed. Sam worked in her garden, picking tomatoes, until Andy was done.

“The biggest thing (we like about the robots) is that they allow us flexibility for chores,” Sam said. “Andy did chores at 8 a.m. and at 4 p.m. Those are not the usual times, but that’s what worked for us today with the kids’ sport schedule.”

Andy agreed.

“That’s why we got the robots, so I can do things and watch my kids’ sports,” he said. “It works great for our family and has allowed us to attend 60%-70% of the kids’ games — home and away.”

After chores, the Meyers went to town to eat before heading to the home football game. Later that evening, their son played flag football during the Kenyon-Wanamingo varsity football game.

“It (spending time with his kids) is a value that is hard to describe because it is just so important to us,” Andy said. “The kids grow up so fast… (so) it is important to spend time with them.”