From the farm to the page

Hello readers. I am Emily Breth, daughter of Jerry and Tammy, and I just recently signed on with Dairy Star as a part-time reporter. Ever since I was young, I have always had a passion for farming, especially dairy farming. Along with my respect for the dairy community, I also grew up loving to write and always knew in the back of my mind that I wanted to write for a living. Now working at Dairy Star, I am blessed to be able to combine my two biggest interests and call it my career. 

I grew up on a small family dairy farm, Breth Country Acres, near Albany, Minnesota. My family milks 44 Holstein cows with a few Jerseys in the mix. The farm has been in the Breth name for exactly 100 years and has seen four generations grow.

I have three older siblings — Dillon, Miranda and Makayla — who also inherited a passion for the dairy community through our parents and the cattle themselves. As a kid, I loved to go to the barn and play with the calves, watch my mom and dad milk the cows, and see how everything worked. There wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t learn something new. 

Even as I got older, I still enjoyed going to the barn, even if it was to do chores. My main chore on the farm, once my sister went off to college, was caring for the calves. I loved to watch them grow and see all of their different personalities. A core memory I have from the farm is walking out of the barn with milk for the calves and watching them get so excited that they would pop their heads out of their huts and then run back and forth from front to back. I would watch them do this at least three times before I got their milk poured. It was funny to see how what one calf would do would turn into something that all of them did, despite their personalities. 

What made those moments even better was the younger calves that were nearly too small for their jackets and looked like they were wearing capes since their jackets covered most of their legs. 

While in high school, I was active in FFA and served as chapter president my senior year. I enjoyed working with the new members and helping them find their calling within the agricultural community, or even in leadership. It was rewarding to see a smile on their face when they talked about how their competition went and said they were going to stick with it. 

I am currently a student at Anoka Ramsey Community College, working toward my degree in creative writing with only a few credits to go. After I graduate this upcoming May, I plan on working full time with Dairy Star.

Working for Dairy Star is a dream come true for me. I get to talk to farmers about their farm and see the passion they have for farming. I am excited to grow my skills and am grateful that Jan and Tiffany are willing to help me with every question I have. I am very glad my dad agreed to let Mark Klaphake take a picture of him harvesting corn because that was when we talked about a possible position for me with Dairy Star and set me on my new journey of sharing amazing stories from the dairy community.