Dairying for over six decades

LISMORE, Minn. — The Weidert family has seen many changes, ups and downs on their dairy farm since they started in 1963.

“We started with 80 acres, now we farm almost 2,000,” Jerome Weidert said. “I planted a lot of acres with a 2-row corn planter.”

At 85, Jerome said that without modern technology, he would not be still farming.

“I turned every inch of ground except one field this spring,” Jerome said. “That is fun. You get in that (tractor) and push a button and it goes straight as can be.”

Jerome and Mary farm with their five sons, Jeff, Jim, Joe, John and Jerry Jr. Together they milk 350 cows in a double-12 parlor near Lismore. Jeff, Jim, John and Jerry come to the farm every day. Joe helps as needed and, at his farm, takes care of the youngstock from birth until breeding age and finishes the steers. Jim farms his own land while everyone else handles the home farm. All take care of the cows. In return, all five of the sons receive a portion of the milk check.

Jerome starts his day at 4 a.m. and goes outside to feed the cows the total mixed ration while his sons milk the cows. When they are done with morning chores, they come into the house and have a homemade breakfast together every day.

Jerome and Mary were married in 1961 and have seven children total, 25 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren.

A year after marriage, the couple purchased 12 bred heifers from a cattle jockey.

“The jockey was also a salesman who sold surge buckets, coolers and bred heifers,” Jerome said. “To sell the equipment, he sold the heifers too.”

The barn on the Weiderts’ farm site had 12 stanchions, so they needed 12 cows to optimize facilities.

When Jerome and Mary first started, Jerome’s dad and brother were helping on the farm as well. Together they had 500 laying hens and farrow to finish hogs in addition to the dairy. In 1966, Jerome’s dad and brother were killed in a car accident.

“After Dad passed, Mary and I couldn’t take care of everything, so we stopped the hogs,” Jerome said.

In 1969, the Weiderts put in a gutter cleaner and added on a milk house for the bulk tank.

“Before then, Mary would feed the cows while I milked and when I was done milking, we would get pitchforks and clean the gutters by hand,” Jerome said. “We hauled out the 40-foot barn every day. That gutter cleaner was a godsend.”

Eventually, the Weiderts started milking more cows. They added onto the original barn so that it had 48 stalls. Jerome and Mary were milking 150 cows in their 48-stall stanchion barn.

“We switched the entire barn out three times,” Jerome said. “Mary is the one who made it work.”

Having also grown up on a dairy farm, Mary was familiar with milking cows.

“Growing up, my brother and I had to carry cans to the cooler,” Mary said.

After Jeff was born, he sat in the stroller in the barn while she milked cows, Mary said.

Life on the farm was going well for the Weiderts up until 1976, when drought came to the area.

“We had three wells in the yard and we could not get enough water to get a drink,” Mary said. “We hauled water from a well from a neighbor. Jerry and I went out there; they had a pond and we got water from his pond every day until we applied for this small business grant to lay a half-mile 2-inch polyvinyl chloride pipe from their pond to our place.”

Jerome also remembered the hardships of the drought.

“That year we chopped everything we had and we still didn’t get the silo full,” he said. “All winter we had to buy corn.”

Operations on the farm got better, and in the 1980s Jeff and Jim returned to the home farm. However, another impact to the farm occurred when the Weidert’s local bank suddenly closed its doors.

“We went 15 months without a bank,” Mary said. “We operated with cash, bought and sold everything with cash. We went into mediation and the elevator and veterinary kept us on and we told them we would pay them back in three years.”

The Weiderts kept their word and were able to keep going. By 1999, they started building their current barn with a double-12 parlor. When they moved into the new barn, they had 150 cows and purchased more until they were up to 350 cows.

Every day is a new day for the Weiderts and they would not have it any other way.

“When you go to town and you see the houses are only that far apart, I wouldn’t want to live that way,” Mary said. “I always liked my flowers, and the kids are here.”

Jerome agreed.

“I’m proud of what we have accomplished,” Jerome said. “I don’t know how we did it, but we did.”