Decades of service

GREY EAGLE, Minn. — Growing up, Kyle Kuelbs lived in town but took every chance he could to work on farms.

“I have always been into livestock,” Kuelbs said. “I was in FFA and in the summer I spent most of my time on the farms of friends and family. All my dad’s relatives had farms and I showed pigs and beef at the fair with a friend who had a farm.”

Kuelbs retired in November after breeding dairy cows across central Minnesota for 45 years. Kuelbs and his wife, Maria, own 25 head of registered Hereford cattle near Grey Eagle. They have three children and six grandchildren, all involved in the beef cattle industry.

Kuelbs said now they will be able to spend more time with their children who live in Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota, as well as with his parents who are still alive.

“I missed a lot of family time when the kids were younger,” he said.

Kuelbs did not have a traditional start to his long-standing career. After graduating from high school, he attended Canby Area Vocational School — which is now Minnesota West Community & Technical College — and got a job at a factory.

“I couldn’t stand it, being inside all day and not seeing the sun,” Kuelbs said.

Later that year, while at the Minnesota State Fair showing beef cattle with a friend, Kuelbs visited with representatives from semen companies that had booths at the fair.

Midwest Breeders Cooperative was the only one that he did not have to buy his own tank, semen and supplies, Kuelbs said.

“At 19 years old, I didn’t have (money) to start up with like all the other companies asked for,” Kuelbs said. 

A few weeks later, Kuelbs went to Shawano, Wisconsin, to attend a 2-week breeding school. On Oct. 2, 1979, Kuelbs was hired full time with Midwest Breeders Cooperative, which has subsequently merged with other entities and is now GENEX Cooperative.

“That first year I put 80,000 miles on my vehicle,” Kuelbs said. “I thought that was crazy and asked myself if I really wanted to do this.”

In 1981, Kuelbs was assigned a new territory near his hometown of Chaska.

“I worked three townships and typically put on 50 miles a day and I could make a living on those three townships,” Kuelbs said. “I couldn’t tell you how many herds there were but there was one every half mile.”

Kuelbs met and married his wife, Maria, and when their three children — Brian, Todd and Dana — were old enough to start school, the couple decided they wanted to raise their family in the country. Kuelbs also wanted to have a farm of his own.

An opening within GENEX became available in central Minnesota covering Todd and parts of Morrison, Stearns and Douglas counties.

“Those first couple of years were a challenge,” Kuelbs said. “When I first got up here, it was like pulling teeth to get guys to switch to let me breed their cows.”

Now, Kuelbs’ customers are like family.

“One Thanksgiving, I was at this guy’s place, and he comes out with a plate of turkey, mashed potatoes, and dressing and I was like, ‘Seriously?’,” Kuelbs said. “He said, ‘Since you have to work, you might as well have a proper Thanksgiving.’”

Kuelbs said many of his customers text him about their kids’ sports games or hunting stories.

“I will miss the customers,” Kuelbs said. “I enjoyed seeing their kids grow up and some of them are now farming with kids of their own.”

Kuelbs has seen changes in his time breeding cows.

“The size of farms is the biggest difference, going from 30 to 40-cow dairies to 1,000-cow dairies,” Kuelbs said. “Now, I have to put on a lot more miles to breed a cow.”

Farming practices and setups have changed too, Kuelbs said.

“Back when I first started, everyone let their cows out on pasture during the day,” Kuelbs said. “I couldn’t breed cows until 4 or 5 o’clock. I had to cover two territories for a while when another guy got injured and that was tough because I couldn’t do anything until 4 p.m.”

Kuelbs estimates he has put on nearly two million miles during his career.

“When I retired (my last vehicle), it had 516,000 miles,” Kuelbs said. “I went through eight vehicles for work. The only day I didn’t work was Christmas; I worked 364 days a year.”

Over the course of the last 45 years, Kuelbs said he has made a lot of memories.

“To me the job was fun,” Kuelbs said. “It had its challenges but meeting and talking with the farmers made it all worth it.”