Showcasing cow comfort

ROLLINGSTONE, Minn. — For Becky Clark and the generations before her, Aug. 7 was a first for the family as their dairy farm hosted the 2025 Family Night on the Farm in Winona County.

“It’s community service,” Becky said. “This was something that we could host to bring value into our community. … I’m happy that they come out and support us and that we can do something for everybody.”

Becky is the owner of the LLC at Clark Farms. Clark Farms has about 680 cows and 800 acres located near Rollingstone. Becky said she decided to host the event after being encouraged to do so by her banker, Brady Boyum, who is on the Winona Area Chamber of Commerce.

Boyum had just helped Becky put up a barn, which was completed in December 2023. Also, Becky said the hayfield next to the farm site was in its third and final year in 2025.

“I said, ‘It’s the year to do it if we’re going to do it,’ and so he talked me into it,” Becky said.

Becky said cow comfort is a message she hopes attendees took home.

“We really care about our animals,” she said. “We’re happy to be part of the community, and we’re happy to have them out to see how we treat our animals and how much we love taking care of them.”

Becky’s dad, Mark, agreed.

“I would hope that they would see how comfortable the cows are,” he said. “You go in our cow barn, and it’s more comfortable in there than it is out here.”

Becky’s mom, Angela, said kids at the event were able to play in the same sand they use to bed their cows.

“(It’s) just like lying on a beach for (the cows),” Angela said. “Our goal is to keep our animals comfortable.”

Besides being able to play in a pile of freestall sand, attendees also could watch the calving pen where a cow gave birth in the middle of the event.

Briar and Jodi Peters and their children were one of the families of attendees. Jodi said they did not make it last year, but they have attended around five previous Family Night on the Farm events. She said the petting zoo was her children’s favorite part.

“I hope that they start to learn that farming is important,” Jodi said.

Becky said she enjoyed seeing the families out enjoying the farm and that she loves having kids around.

Becky bought out the dairy LLC several years ago. However, Mark still works on the farm Monday to Friday every week and occasionally on a Saturday.

“She’s very motivated, very energetic, very ambitious, very educated,” Mark said.

Angela agreed.

“She’s easy to work with … (and) has the drive to farm,” she said.

In the weeks leading up to the event, the Clarks prepared the farm site.

“(It was) clean, clean, clean,” Becky said. “We power washed all the buildings. You go around and plant flowers and pull weeds and pull weeds and pull more weeds.”

They mowed the lawn for 14 hours every five days, freshened the gravel and more.

“It’s the cosmetic maintenance that normally is at the very bottom of the list,” Becky said. “It’s nice to have something that forces you to get everything back up .. to snuff.”

Family, friends and neighbors also assisted.

“The community support is awesome,” Becky said. “That’s very humbling to have everybody come and help you when you need help.”

Becky said that the Winona Area Chamber of Commerce did much of the work of preparing for the event. Becky provided a list of vendors the farm works with and they found sponsors, put up wind fence to restrict access to parts of the farm that needed to be operational, and more.

“You basically just have to provide the place,” she said. “They make it really easy to do.”

Jordan Frederick was one of the co-chairs of the event.

“There’s a lot of thought and planning that goes into the site prep of where we can lay everything out,” he said. “(We have) to be mindful of letting the farm still operate as well. There’s part of this farm that we haven’t touched because Becky and the family still need to be able to operate as a dairy.”

The event had multiple family activities, including a petting zoo, the aforementioned sand pile, a bounce house, a farm scavenger hunt, live music, free ice cream and supper for sale.

“We try to have as much educational material as we can here,” Frederick said. “(We want people to) leave with a good outlook on farming.”

His co-chair, Kaleb Storm, agreed.

“For most of these people, this is the only time of year that they’re on a farm,” he said. “Too many people in the community don’t get out, and they’re not from an ag background anymore. It used to be that people were only a generation or two removed from farming.”