Family is important to Scott and Denise Gathje

Family is an important component on Scott and Denise Gathje’s Richmond dairy farm. The couple and their six children, ranging in age from 4 to 14, work together in many activities from feeding cows to sorting bolts. They have been named the Stearns County Farm Family of the Year and will be honored with 86 other farm families Aug. 9 at Farmfest. The family milks 60 to 65 cows in a tie-stall barn and farms 180 acres. Their long-range goal is to milk in a parlor, but they are taking their time in the building process. It’s a well-planned process, thanks in part to Howard Pennertz, an adult farm business management instructor at St. Cloud Technical College. “He helped us set goals and look towards the future,” Scott said. “We have always had that goal over the last five years to get to a parlor, but not going broke doing it. We also wanted to build a new house and were able to do that two years ago.” Scott grew up on a dairy farm in St. Charles and Denise on a Watkins dairy. They met in Rochester and purchased and moved to their Richmond farm in 1995. The purchase included the farm’s cattle and feed. They have since built a free-stall barn. In 2000 they used EQIP funds to build a waterway, wind break and expand the farm’s manure storage system from 350,000 to one million gallons. They have one year storage now compared to six-month storage before, Scott said. The family raises alfalfa and corn. About 75 percent of the hay is used for haylage and the rest for baled hay. About 25 percent of the corn is used for silage.  Denise’s father, Art Kuechle, chops hay for the Gathje farm and they exchange machinery. They are members of the Midwest Forage Association and hosted the area’s forage day last year. They have a University of Minnesota varietal trial plot on their farmland. This is the fifth year they’ve hosted a plot, Scott said. The Gathjes participate in the scissors cut program each spring. Scott is a delegate on the Select Sires Co-op, serves on the St. Nicholas Catholic Church parish council and is treasurer for the Eden Valley-Watkins FFA Alumni.  Denise is a lector for the church, bookkeeper for the farm and assists three of the children with their 4-H projects. The children, Joe, Anne, James, Kathryn, Gregory and Jonathan, all help with the farming operation. Chores are a special time of bonding, learning and being together. Scott gathered the four youngest for a bolt-sorting session last week. He took a picnic table to the shop, put pails of bolts on top and worked with them as they sorted bolts and talked about the hot summer’s day. “They can become a bit distracted, but they do a pretty good job,” he said. Reprinted by permission of Agri News, Rochester, Minn.