BLUME GRANT COUNTY
family
Dana and Katy Blume farm 3,200 acres and serve as the fourth-generation of Blumes to continue the farming tradition.
The extended Blume family, including Dana’s father, brother and son, farm a combined total of 6,400 acres of corn, soybeans and sugar beets. Dana and Katy are members of the Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative and process their sugar beets in Wahpeton, North Dakota. They have been named this year’s Grant County Farm Family of the Year.
Dana has been farming since 1996 when he rented his first piece of farmland, 140 acres.
Four years later, he and Katy were married. The two met as students at the University of Minnesota
Crookston.
Together they have four children — Kilee, Cole, Addison and Charlie — who are all involved in the farming operation to some degree. Kilee is a senior at North Dakota State University majoring in communications. Cole will be attending North Dakota State College of Science in Wahpeton and plans to return to the family farm. Addison is a junior at Herman Norcross Community School and is active in sports, 4-H and FFA. She loves showing dairy and beef cattle. The cattle are leased from another family. Charlie is a freshman at HNCS, plays hockey, is active in 4-H and FFA, and loves hunting, driving tractors and mowing lawns. Their parents are
FARM FAMILY
equally as active. Dana has been a member of the Herman Fire Department for 23 years and the Herman School Board for 18 years. He has served on the St. Charles Catholic Church Council, Minnesota Soybean Growers Association, and various local co-op boards. Katy is the coordinator of faith formation at church, board member of Herman Foundation, and is involved in local 4-H and FFA programs.
RECOGNITION
The University of Minnesota Farm Family Recognition Program honors farm families from throughout Minnesota for their significant contributions to the agriculture industry and their local communities.
The families were chosen by county-based local University of Minnesota Extension committees based on their demonstrated commitment to enhancing and supporting agriculture in their county.
The Farm Family Recognition Program has honored Minnesota farmers since 1979. It is coordinated by University of Minnesota Extension, the College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences and the College of Veterinary Medicine.
Farm Families for 2023 were recognized at Farmfest, held in Redwood County, August 1-3.
PHOTO COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA EXTENSION
Dana and Katy Blume are named this year’s Grant County Farm Family of the Year. The couple farms 3,200 acres.
REENTS POPE COUNTY family
Jane and Gary Reents currently farm 1,500 acres with their son, Kyle, and his family.
The family, recognized as this year’s Pope County Farm Family of the Year, has implemented a number of conservation practices on the farm.
They are a Minnesota Agriculture Water Quality Certification farm with cover crops, buffer strips, field windbreaks, water and sediment control basins, irrigation scheduling, and land in the conservation reserve program. They also practice notill farming. They currently raise corn, soybeans, wheat, sweet corn, peas, hay and cover crops. Kyle also has beef cattle and rotates pastures with paddocks. The Reentses use a crop consultant and do grid sampling, variable rate planting, and fertilizer and split rate nitrogen applications.
The farm has been in the family since 1932. Gary Reents’ father started irrigating crops in 1957, mainly to feed his cow-calf operation. He also raised potatoes for local produce distributors. After Gary’s father’s death at age 45, Gary quit college and returned to the farm, adding center pivot irrigation over the years.
family was named the Pope County Farm Family of the Year for 2023.
Jane and Gary have four children and 12 grandchildren. All the kids helped on the farm while growing up. Heather is a teacher; Jesse is a doctor, midwife and a Villard first responder; Lindsey is a medical lab technician; and Kyle farms, serves on the Villard Fire Department and is a first responder. Jane and Gary are transitioning the farm operation over to Kyle and his family.
Off the farm, the family has been involved in the community. Gary has been a Pope County Soil
and Water Conservation District supervisor for over 35 years and was on the board of Villard Co-op Oil for 35 years. He has been inducted into the Viking Speedway Hall of Fame; he raced cars on area dirt tracks for five decades. Jane was the first woman elected to her county’s Farm Service Agency committee and also served as chair. For 35 years, she was a Villard first responder. The Reents are members of the Villard Methodist Church, where Kyle’s wife, Jackie, is a Sunday school teacher.
PHOTOS SUBMITTED Kyle (from left), Natalie, Jane, Gary, Madeline, Jackie, Lily and Katlyn Reents gather for a celebration photo. The Reents
Gary Reents loads out corn for a March contract and checks grain bins. Gary and his wife Jane run the farm with their son Kyle and his family.
Granddaughters Eleanor Vander Hagen and Natalie Reents play on the hay bales at the Reents family farm. The farm has been in the family since 1932.
JANSON MORRISON COUNTY family
Roger Janson is a fourth-generation farmer, and he runs the family farm with his wife Janice and their son Keith. Together, they raise corn and soybeans and fresh market sweet corn on 260 acres. They run three roadside stands and provide seven local stores with sweet corn. The Jansons employ several youths from the community to help pick sweet corn during harvest season. Additionally, they run a manure pumping business, which employs four people outside the family. The business pumps 50 to 60 pits during the spring and fall.
The Janson family was named this year’s Morrison County Farm Family of the Year.
On the farm, Roger and Keith are responsible for growing crops and running the manure-pumping business. Janice does the bookwork, picks sweet corn, helps run the roadside stands and drives a tractor for the pit business.
Keith and his wife Shelby and family are very active in the sweet corn operation. They pick corn and help run the roadside stands. The Jansons’ son, Matthew and his wife Jenny, also help pick
corn and help run a stand as does Roger and Janice’s daughter, Kelly.
Roger is a trustee for St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Buckman. He was very involved in the construction of the church’s parish center and church renovation. Keith is on the Holy Trinity School board in Pierz, and Shelby is the school’s parent-teacher organization president. Keith and Shelby’s children are very involved in 4-H. The Jansons sell crop insurance and Dairy Revenue Protection insurance as well.
Roger (left) and Matthew Janson load sacks of sweet corn into a truck from a trailer Aug. 22 at the Janson family farm near Pierz. The whole family pitches in during sweet corn season to get the product from the field to the consumer.
PHOTOS BY HANS LAMMEMAN
Evelyn Nouis (front row, from left) and Gareth Nouis; (middle, from left) Emily Leidenfrost, Candace Stangl, Isabelle Nois, Kelly Nouis, Ben Leidenfrost and Lucas Scott; (back, from left) Roger Janson Janice Janson, Keith Janson, Gabe Stangl, Hunter Jacobson, Jayden Zajac, Westin Hoheisel and Matthew Janson stand in front of a sweet corn stand Aug. 22 by a field at the Janson family farm near Pierz.
Janski Farms is owned and operated by Richard, Marlys, and their sons, Thomas and Daniel. The farm focuses on a cash crop as well as a dairy and feeder steer operation. In 2016, the family began experimenting with no-till and cover crops. Today, 90% of the land the Janski family farms uses no-till and cover crops.
Due to their efforts and involvement, the Janski family was named this year’s Stearns County Farm Family of the Year.
Janski Farms began operations in 1940. The farm itself started in 1902, but in 1940, Richard Janski purchased the farm from a relative and ran it with his son, Robert, as Janski Farms. They milked cows and crop farmed. In 1966, Robert and his wife, Joanne, had a son, Richard. Richard and his wife, Marlys, had four children who were actively
involved in the day-to-day operation of the farm.
Richard is involved in activities on the farm, including planting, harvesting and excavating. Marlys takes care of the books and feeds the calves. Thomas handles cattle care, equipment maintenance and crop fertility. Daniel helps with animal health, cover crops, planting and overall animal welfare. His wife, Bridgette, helps with calf care and meal planning for the farm.
The family credits their soil health success to the help of many friends and family along with past and present employees.
The Janskis work with their local National Resource Conservation Service office to learn more about conservation efforts and share their outcomes with others in the use of cover crops.
PHOTOS SUBMITTED
Daniel (from left), Thomas, Robert, Marlys, and Richard Janski gather at their family’s farm. The family was recently named the Stearns County Farm Family of the Year.
Decker (from left), Kara, Thomas and Lanie Janski stop for a photo on their family’s farm in Stearns County. They are part of the multi-generational Janski family that was named the 2023 Farm Family of the Year for their county.
BEYER SWIFT COUNTY family
John Beyer is the third generation on his family’s farm in Tara Township in west central Minnesota. He has been farming since high school when the farm included hogs and, until recently, a beef feedlot. His wife, Heidi, was born and raised on a dairy farm in Swift County and worked as an ag loan officer after college at a local bank for several years. Heidi and John were married in 2014, and they farm together with John’s brother Dan, his wife Becky, and John’s father Norman.
The Beyer Farm in Swift County now uses a corn and soybean rotation and occasionally includes some wheat. The family also raises a small acreage of alfalfa/grass mix. The Beyers do some custom dairy heifer feeding in the fall and winter for some relatives with a dairy operation nearby. The Beyers were named this year’s Swift County Farm Family of the year.
John and Heidi have five children. Thomas graduated from high school this spring and is attending South Dakota State University to major in human biology and wrestle for the Jackrabbits. He’s been in 4-H for 12 years and FFA for three. Thomas has shown dairy heifers and steers over the years and helps with some tillage in the fall
around football events. Twins Sam and Cora also are involved in 4-H and enjoy showing dairy heifers as well. They look forward to being promoted from “rock pickers” soon. Julia recently started 4-H and showed her first heifer, Pepper, last year at the county fair. Julia is also a rock picker and looks forward to doing so with her four cousins. The couple’s youngest child Lauren is two years old. Heidi has been a stay-at-home mom for the past few years and helps with the Holstein heifer feeding in the fall and winter, drives some grain carts in the fall and helps with some tillage. In addition to the family’s 4-H
involvement, they are active in their church and many school sporting events and band.
PHOTO SUBMITTED
The Beyer family was named this year’s Swift County Farm Family of the Year. Julia (front, from left), Sam, Cora and Lauren Beyer; (back, from left) John, Heidi and Thomas Beyer work together to run Beyer Farm.
PHOTOS SUBMITTED
Chloe Zigan mixes milk for the calves. The Zigans have 35 calves on milk at their family farm.
Alec Zigan hauls out calf pails. He is in charge of cleaning pails and equipment.
