Trick or treating with the cows

WEST CONCORD, Minn. — For Halloween in 2020, like many other moms, Megan Gochnauer had a young child ready to celebrate but no events to go to. So, she decided to start her own event: Halloween Hootenanny.

“I was like, OK, well, we can totally social distance in the barn and just have some people come through and trick or treat through the animals,” Gochnauer said. “It’ll just be something really simple.”

Five years later, and Gochnauer and her husband, Jacob, still have families wearing their costumes and traipsing through the barn to trick or treat. This year’s event on Oct. 25 marked her sixth Halloween Hootenanny on the Gochnauer dairy farm in West Concord. The Gochnauers milk 30-35 predominantly show cows semi-seasonally.

The Halloween Hootenanny event brings visitors directly into the Gochnauers’ working farm. The Gochnauers stall several cows in the stanchion area of the barn, which normally is used as a flat parlor, and decorate the area for Halloween. They also pen other animals inside the stanchion area, including a sheep, a rabbit and a pony for guests to interact with. In front of each animal, a bucket of candy or small toys allows the kids to trick or treat from each animal.

What Gochnauer did not realize her first year was just how popular bringing trick or treat into the barn would be.

“We had 600 people show up that day,” she said. “We had this really long line of people attempting to social distance. … It got really crazy.”

Her second year, attendance was over 2,500, and after that, attendance has held steady around 5,000, although numbers were lower this year due to the cold, damp weather that day.

Part of what makes the event unique is that the Gochnauers’ dairy barn stands directly at the end of Main Street in West Concord.

“We farm right on the edge of town,” Gochnauer said. “Growing up, you looked down and you knew that the barn was down here, but it was a business. It was a working farm, and you didn’t go out there because it wasn’t safe and it wasn’t open to the public.”

When the Gochnauers began renting the facility to farm, they decided to change that mentality.

“We wanted to really use (the location) to our advantage,” Gochnauer said. “(We wanted) to get ag out there and make sure the kids in town and surrounding communities had a place to go, (that) they felt like it was our farm rather than just for my family. That way, they knew where their food was coming from. They weren’t scared of animals, and (they) learned the safety of it all too.”

This year, Alexa Nelson; her husband, Brady; and their young daughter, Sadie, of Byron were among the first-time attendees Oct. 25.

“(Sadie) loves animals, so the real-life animals are fun,” Nelson said.

Ag education is part of what Gochnauer wants to accomplish with the event.

“If a kid goes in and wants to learn about a cow, … the guy who milks them is standing in there … to tell them all about it,” she said.

The barn is not the only area of the event with family-friendly Halloween fun. Outside, in the lawn next to the barn, a cow-themed bounce house, a corn pit, bales for climbing and a rotating swing provided activities to keep kids moving.

A tractor and hayride, s’mores, trunk or treat and vendor booths stretching down Main Street brought more items of interest. In the afternoon, the bowling alley hosted a costume contest.

Halloween Hootenanny is staffed by volunteers from among Gochnauer’s friends and family.

“It takes a village of people to make this go,” Gochnauer said. “It’s all my crazy ideas, and everyone else gets to execute.”

The involvement of the entire community is part of what Gochnauer said makes the event special.

“There’s many great Halloween events through the end of October,” Gochnauer said. “You can go out to these trunk or treats or things like that, but there’s not too many that you also get to support local businesses on the same road.”

Dairy farming and hosting Halloween events are not the only things that keep Gochnauer busy. She also trucks cattle; has an on-farm, self-serve store; has a traveling farm animal petting zoo; offers flowers and pumpkins; owns a restaurant; and has a farm-to-table meal service where she and her business partner, Sarah Heath, make and deliver meals.

Heath was volunteering at the Halloween Hootenanny this year, representing the meal service. Heath, who has nostalgic memories of growing up in a small town, said she hoped a sense of community is what attendees took away from the event.

“We’re all here to support each other,” she said. “It’s fun to see everybody just running around. Life gets so busy, it’s nice to just slow down and enjoy each other’s company.”