The right place, the right time

from January 28, 2023 - 1st section - Zone 1

Hands down, our favorite way to eat chicken-stock rice is to combine it with the leftover chicken to make chicken fried rice. It’s delicious, nutritious, and, since it’s made with both chicken and eggs, the best recipe for a family involved in the 4-H poultry project.

Vander Kooi aids motorists stranded in blizzard

We have a naturally ventilated freestall barn, so we try to keep the doors closed and the sidewalls covered to help keep the temperature up. We try to keep the youngstock bedded and comfortable. Waterers can always be a challenge so just making sure that the heating elements are working is critical.

What challenges have you had on the farm during cold weather and how did you overcome them? One challenge we can struggle with is frostbite on springers’ teats. Getting them trained to use the free stalls and making sure that they stay clean and dry is important. We post-dip springers with a different dip that has more conditioners to keep skin soft and smooth. It’s also important to get good milk ow from them. If they don’t let their milk down, we will use oxytocin on them. We’ll run them with the hospital cows on a bedding pack during severely cold weather.

What do you do to maintain equipment in cold weather? Keeping equipment indoors is helpful. We have a nice-sized heated shop, which is very helpful. Our feeding equipment stays in the freestall barn with the loaders, which is usually warm. We try to schedule certain things and rotate equipment in and out of the shop. We also use treated diesel fuel and cold weather additives.

What apparel would you not leave the house without during cold snaps? Insulated coat and gloves.

Describe the toughest winter you remember. Honestly, it’s probably this one so far. I graduated from high school in 2015, and this is the most snow I remember during these seven years. The cold snap we had in December was pretty brutal. I can’t say that I can remember windchills that low since I’ve been working.

If you could get away during the winter and go anywhere, where would you go? I’d say anywhere warm. Wherever my wife and kids would choose to relax and spend time together.

Tell us about your farm. I farm with my dad, Rodney, and two of my brothers. We also have three milkers who help us. We milk in a double-8 herringbone parlor, and our herd of Jersey cows are housed in a freestall barn. We farm 520 acres and grow a ro-tation of corn and soybeans along with 35 acres of alfalfa. Our milk is shipped to Land O’Lakes.

By Jan Lefebvre jan.l@star-pub.com

WORTHINGTON, Minn. – Many people, when needing medical attention, have experienced being driven to a hospital, but not many can claim to have been driven there by tractor.

That is what Joe Vander Kooi did for two stranded motorists Dec. 23, 2022, when they were caught in a blizzard near his farm and needed help.

“They might have been just ne, but it might have been a bad deal,” Vander Kooi said. “Things can go south (in a blizzard) pretty fast.”

When Vander Kooi set out in his tractor that afternoon, it was to clear the road so his employees could safely come in for the third milking shift. He and his wife, Rita, are in partnership with his father, Dave Vander Kooi, at Ocheda Dairy where they milk a couple thousand cows south of Worthington.

The temperature was about 15 degrees below zero that day with 30-40 mph winds.

“It was a 50-below windchill,” Vander Kooi said. “It was wicked – a white out.”

Vander Kooi’s tractor had a front wheel assist with a silage blade, so he could plow snow as he went. The tractor’s height helped, Vander Kooi said, but visibility was only about the distance between the electric poles.

Vander Kooi has lived near Worthington his whole life and is used to Minnesota blizzards, but he said the night before he already realized this one was extreme.

“I have an open cattle lot with bales protecting the cattle from the wind,” Vander Kooi said. “It was probably the rst time I thought that there was a chance I could have dead animals in the morning.”

Vander Kooi’s plans to clear the road that afternoon changed when he came across a car in the middle of the road, blocking his way. He jumped out of the tractor to talk to the two young people inside.

“They were looking for their friends who were stuck and thought they were right over the hill,” Vander Kooi said. “I didn’t make too much of it. I told them to be careful and kept going. When I came back 20 minutes later, they were still there, in my way, but in a different spot.”

Vander Kooi checked in with them again.

“They had their phone out,” Vander Kooi said. “Their friends were on speaker phone saying, ‘We’re so cold. We don’t know how far we can walk.’”

It was then Vander Kooi realized they needed help.

The group said they were using an app to pinpoint where each pair was, using it to try to walk toward each other.

“I told (the stranded pair) to get back to their car if they could, and I would pick them up, guring their car was on the road,” Vander Kooi said. “Then I looked at their (app) and realized they weren’t over the hill; they were 2.5 miles away down a not-so-good road.”

Vander Kooi told the friends to drive to town instead of trying to follow him on the dangerous roads and he would keep them updated. Then, he set out in his tractor to locate the stranded car.

“It’s a road I take to work every day; it’s a beautiful drive on a bluff overlooking a lake and a winding road,” Vander Kooi said. “But, in a blizzard, I don’t take that road because right now the cut on either side of it is taller than your vehicle, and in a wind storm, it’s bad. I ended up going through another section to get to where (the stranded motorists) were.”

When Vander Kooi found them, they were in their car.

“(One of the pair) told me he couldn’t feel his feet and his leg had turned purple,” Vander Kooi said. “But, they got in my tractor on their own power. They didn’t look terrible; they didn’t look awesome, but I told them that it was nothing to mess around with.”

Vander Kooi drove his passengers into Worthington by tractor and dropped them off in front of the emergency entrance at the hospital. It was 6:30 p.m. – about 3.5 hours after rst coming across the motorists looking for their friends.

Vander Kooi said his passengers were humble and thankful for the help.

“They were saying, ‘God bless you,’ the whole time,” he said.

Since that day, Vander Kooi has not spoken with them, but the mother of one contacted Rita on Facebook to thank him and let him know both were ne.

Vander Kooi said he is uncomfortable talking about the incident because he does not want attention for what he sees as a normal act on his part. He was in the right place at the right time and knows, amid a Minnesota blizzard, it is better to be safe than sorry.

“It might have been ne, but in those conditions, it might have had a different ending,” Vander Kooi said. “How do you ever know?”

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