A Farmer’s Father’s Day
Jeff Caldwell
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Spruce up your shop with these new tools.
Sarah Mumm isn’t a typical work-from-home mom. Every morning at 6 a.m. and again every evening at 6 p.m., you’ll find her milking her 50 registered Holstein dairy cows in a picturesque white dairy barn nestled in the hills of rural Grant County Wisconsin. Owning a dairy herd has been a dream since Sarah was a little girl; she grew up on a dairy farm about 30 minutes from where she and her husband, Joe, live with their two young sons.
“People often ask why I milk 50 cows. It’s the perfect number for me because of the space we have here and the amount of time it takes to chore and milk,” says Sarah, who at age 16 got her first milking job with a family raising Jersey cattle near Cobb. That family’s optimism about the dairy business was one of the reasons Sarah attended the University of Wisconsin short course for Dairy Herd Management.
It takes Sarah about 1½ hours to complete her shift of milking. While she does the morning milking, Joe stays inside with Vincent, age 3½, and Mitchell, age 2. Joe then leaves for his seasonal job at Majestic View Dairy in Lancaster, and Sarah keeps busy with their boys. There’s a lot of “farming” to be done as the boys’ extra large sandbox is filled with tractors and equipment. They also enjoy gathering eggs from their laying hens, helping take care of the calves and taking care of their two pigs.
“We want our boys to know where their food comes from, so we raise a little bit of everything,” says Sarah with a warm smile. She and Joe met at Majestic View where she was a herdsman and he worked with the crop side of the business. It wasn’t long before Sarah bought a few cows of her own, and Joe proposed to her on the same day she started milking them.
Today Joe and Sarah operate Vin-Rose Dairy. They make their home on the same farm where Joe was raised. They raise crops 50:50 with their landlord, who lives in California and comes to stay in Wisconsin for about one month each summer.
Like father, like son. While Joe Mumm gets ready to plant corn, his son Mitchell holds up the bag of sweet corn for his patch.
“There just aren’t enough words to explain how fortunate we feel to raise our family on a farm,” says Sarah. “Our boys learn so much just by watching us. They have an understanding of life and death. They grasp that seeds get planted, so crops can be harvested for food. They learn how to care for animals. And they enjoy eating food from our garden.”
Sarah opened up her recipe box and shared some of her family’s favorites with us today on TheFieldPosition.com. Cheesy potatoes are a family favorite on Sundays, and banana bread with a class of milk is one of the boys’ favorite snacks. As a salute to America’s dairy farmers during the Dairy Days of June, take the cap off a jug of milk, open a fresh package of cheese and let the cooking begin!
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2nd grade students planting their corn
Second graders at Taft Elementary School in Humboldt, Iowa, are getting firsthand experience with planting Iowa’s number one crop as part of a project that begins with spring planting on a local farm and extends to next fall when, as third graders, they will harvest the crop they helped plant. Throughout the summer, they’ll have a chance to follow the crop’s progress through videos posted periodically online.
Humboldt County farmers Dean and Carol Coleman, along with their son Mike, initiated this program to help 2nd and 3rd grade students understand how and why farmers raise crops. The Coleman family raises corn and soybeans on their North Central Iowa farm.
“We wanted kids to have a chance to meet with the people who get their hands dirty every day,” says Carol Coleman, who served as a preschool teacher 20 years, plus is a mother of two and a grandmother of four. “We want kids to be able to put a face on farmers, who provide the basics of everyday life from food on their tables, fiber in their clothing and building materials for their houses. Basically, we want to answer the fundamental question: ‘Where does my stuff come from’?”
Farmer Dean & Farmer Mike
The Colemans had the idea for the Adopt-a-Farmer program after they listened to Bruce Vincent, a third generation logger from Montana, speak about the importance of telling your ag story.
“We decided to develop a program to make others aware of what farming is all about. Naturally, we thought of telling our story to kids. We had hosted grade school classes in the past. While they visited our farm, there wasn’t really time for us to explain farm operations. The kids had fun seeing the how much a bushel weighs and what is made from corn and soybeans. They loved climbing on the equipment and seeing the inside of the grain bin, but we wanted to create a program that would provide a more comprehensive look at agriculture. We wanted to give kids a chance to ask questions and learn facts about farming. We want them to see that food doesn’t just magically appear on grocery store shelves. We want them to learn how their food is grown.”
Dean and Carol Coleman with their sons, Nick and Mike
Prior to the planting season, the Colemans visited the classroom and introduced themselves to the students. They explained what the “Adopt-A-Farmer” program entailed and how they would like to become part of their classroom. The Colemans have provided videos of Farmer Dean and Farmer Mike doing their jobs, so students can see what’s involved with moving rock, welding equipment & grinding metal for a hitch piece for the planter or fix the tractor’s computer.
Also via video, students “rode” in the sprayer and the planter with Farmers Dean and Mike. Students then came to the Coleman farm and each planted 5 kernels of corn, themselves, in the field. Throughout the summer, students and their families can drive by and literally watch their corn plants grow. In the fall, they will come back to the farm and harvest their crop and see more things for harvest season.
“We really want all 109 students to get excited when they see crops in the field and know what is growing! Maybe they’ll even share some fun facts, which they learned on our farm, with their parents. We also want them to start understanding the difference between fact and fiction since the media doesn’t always accurately tell agriculture’s story.”
To help make a connection between the crops that are planted and the livestock that is raised with the food on our tables, today the Colemans are sharing two of their family’s favorite recipes for Taco Seasoning and Apricot Oatmeal Soy Cookies. Enjoy!
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Try this seasoned meat on baked potato or Tostito chips with lettuce, refried beans, cheese and chip dip.
COOK’S TIP: To break up browned hamburger into fine morsels, stir with a whisk while it’s browning.
by Carol Coleman
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Yields 4 ½ dozen cookies
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When I sit down to write articles for our blog, I feel like I'm sitting down with my family at the dinner table, ready to talk about news from the field while we enjoy one of our favorite recipes. Whether you're looking for information to help you in the field, are interested in trying a farm family's favorite recipe or simply want to see what others are doing to help feed and fuel the world, we cover it here at The Field Position! Thanks for visiting us today and we hope to hear from you again soon!