A day in the life of the Suhrs

MANTORVILLE, Minn. — The days leading up to Oct. 1 were filled with one frustrating chopper breakdown after another for the Suhr family.

“It does (get frustrating),” Joel Suhr said. “(You are) trying to get done and there you sit … spending money and (getting) parts.”

Over the weekend, a piece had come loose inside the chopper and traveled through the processor. The following two days were spent looking for parts. Finally, Sept. 30, Joel drove the 3-plus-hour round trip to Norwood Young America for parts. That night they were back in the field again, and things seemed to be going well when the bearing carrier on the processor broke late that night.

Oct. 1 dawned with the 3-row chopper once again in the shop. In spite of the challenges, Joel kept a positive perspective.

“You know … it’s going to get done in the end,” he said. “It may be a day or two later, but it’s going to get done. … It’s frustrating, but it’s better than somebody getting hurt or something like that happening.”

Joel milks about 120 cows alongside his parents, Don and Terri, and brother, Jason, who also works full time for the local implement dealer as a mechanic. The family farms about 500 acres near Mantorville.

Joel and Jason are the fifth generation of Suhrs to dairy farm. The first Suhr moved onto the farm in 1900.

“You grew up doing it, so it’s in your blood,” Joel said. “You’re on (the farm) your whole life, and it just becomes a part of you.”

At age 71, Don still helps with chores every day. He said he is happy to have the next generation on the farm.

“(I am) proud of it,” he said. “I know my grandfather and father would be very happy too.”

The Suhrs’ day began at 5:30 a.m. as cows started milking in the double-8 parallel parlor. Don and Terri milked alongside their nephew-in-law, Ramon Espinoza. Espinoza also houses 15 cows on the farm along with the Suhrs’ herd.

After Joel got the milking started, he moved on to feed bales of hay to young stock and mixed the total mixed ration for the cows. The cows are in a freestall barn built in 2004 that has mattresses topped with sawdust.

In the milking parlor, Don stepped away for a few minutes to feed the handful of calves the Suhrs have right now.

Don has been farming all his life, and he counts 1965 as his starting year. This spring, he and Terri celebrated 45 years of marriage. Don said he enjoys farming for various reasons.

“You’re your own boss,” he said. “I know I couldn’t handle living in a big town. (It’s) too congested for me. I’ve lived here my entire life.”

For Joel’s morning, once he had the older animals fed, he filled the foot baths and then began looking for parts. This time, his drive was a little shorter. After a 40-minute drive to Plainview and then back again, he had parts.

By mid-afternoon, Jason, who has done all the family’s fixing for the past 20 years, was at work in the shop. Joel helped out too, as well as putting a sprout bracket on a silo unloader.

Jason is active on his family’s farm around his work. He said eventually he may join the farm in a more full-time capacity, depending on various factors.

“(Farming) is a little bit more for yourself,” he said. (For us) there’s a family history, going way back to great-grandparents. … (I also like) just the idea of working with crops, working with livestock, (and) seeing what you do … develop into something.”

At the time of their breakdown the day before, the Suhrs had two of the five 8- by 200-foot bags they fill complete and none of the 20- by 80-foot silo filled with corn silage. The Suhrs raise all their own feed except for protein and cottonseed. Besides corn silage, they also fill two silos with high-moisture corn and a 20- by 70-foot silo with haylage. They harvest the rest of their hay ground as baleage.

Because they have a pull-behind chopper, the Suhrs plant the outsides of their fields with a short-day variety to harvest for high-moisture corn. This way, they can open their fields with a combine. They also harvest some fields solely for high-moisture corn.

By 6 p.m. the chopper was back together, and Joel, Jason and a friend and neighbor, Josh Whittaker, were in the field. The trio spent the rest of the day in the field until they wrapped up a bag of corn silage.

“About 1 this morning, we shut it down,” Joel said.

While Joel and Jason were out in the field, Don, Terri and Espinoza were back working on milking and calf feeding from 5:30-9 p.m.

“They took care of the chores while we were chopping,” Joel said. “It’s a team effort for everybody to get it done.”