Tell us about your family.
Vicky: We live on a 5th generation dairy farm near St. Rosa MN. We in many ways are a normal typical family, but in other ways are atypical and much different.
My husband Tom is the solid rock and foundation of our farm. Tom, providing solid leadership and day to day hours of work along with support for our children Collin (17 at the end of Jan 2025), Elaine (14) and Evelyn (10). We also have some part time hired help.
Vicky works full time off the farm at Stearns Electric Association as the VP of Administration and Finance. This non-profit electric co-op provides electricity to homes, farms and businesses in Central MN – over 29,000 to be exact. I get to work alongside some extremely talented employees who care about our members. It is especially fun when I get to talk with members who remember when electricity was first brought to their farm and hear them explain how it changed their lives. Members always want to hear about our farm and how I balance the farm and a working career.
As for our children, Collin is a non-traditional student doing online school. He has been doing online school for two years and he absolutely loves it. Online school is not for everyone, but for him it works. Now to be clear, we have elected to hire someone to come into our home twice a week to be available to Collin to ask question and confirm and double check that he is learning and comprehending what is needed (I do this too as a parent, but I have another set of eyes watching too.) I’m not sure all students need this, but as parents you know your child and when we decided to go online with him we knew this would be needed because both Tom and I work full time with our job and we did not want to sacrifice other areas of our lives by him going to online school. Collin does not do any sports through online school by choice – he does not have a competitive bone in his body. (nor does his dad). With his online school he does have some live classes each week, so he knows his teacher and his classmates, but also has his independent studies.
Elaine is quiet but always listens and one heck of a hard worker. She is a 9th grader at Melrose high school and involved in swimming, FFA and softball. She loves one on one time, her horse and country music.
Evelyn is our spit and life of the party child. She is a 5th grader at Melrose Elementary School and loves school and her friends. She is involved in swimming, basketball and softball. She is very competitive, simply loves to be around people and also loves country music. Between Evelyn and Elaine they know so many country songs.
Collin, Elaine and Evelyn together have their own small herd of red angus beef animals. They have taken some of their earnings from the farm and invested in red angus. Collin is the watcher of the markets and tends to them. This year, Elaine used her red angus as part of her FFA SAE project.
How did you meet?
Tom: We met in high school.
Vicky: We started dating when I was a junior and he was a senior.
Funniest kid story?
Tom: Since Evelyn was about 5 years old, she has been daddy’s little girl and I can’t deny it. Evelyn will tell me, “Dad I’m not going to let you go to the old folk’s home (nursing home), I am going to let you live with me, I will take care of you. Oh, mom can live there too!”
Vicky: As mentioned earlier, Evelyn is our wild child. Evelyn likes to hang out with Collin, so they went fishing at the local peer. When they came back home, Evelyn was all wet (head to toe) and missing a shoe. Evelyn had been so busy talking and telling jokes that she fell in and lost her shoe in the lake. Collin just shook his head and said that he can’t take her anywhere without her causing a ruckus.
Best advice for parents?
Tom: Spend time with your kids and include them in what you do. They learn from you.
What do you hope for your children?
Tom: That they are respectable and good people.
What do you hope for your family?
Tom: That they understand the value of helping those in need with the understanding of no repayment. Also the value of visiting those that are elderly and lonely. A simple conversation can mean so much to these people.
What does your family do for fun?
Tom: We go to the lake, we go out to eat, we enjoy watching our kids in sports, etc.
How do you balance work and personal life?
Tom: I try to get my work done when Vicky is at work and the kids are at school so I can be present when they are around.
Did you always know you wanted to be a dad?
Tom: Yes.
Advice for a new dad?
Tom: Spend time with them – take them to town, be with them, show them how to do things.
Did you always know you wanted to be a mom?
Vicky: I did. We got married in our early 20’s which for today is society is young, but we also were dating since we were in high school.
Best advice you’ve received?
Vicky: My mom’s mother was a Wieber from the Farming MN where they dairy farmed for many years until they retired in Richmond. Helen would say that you need to keep life simple and that bigger is not always better.
I think we can all relate to this comment of keeping life simple.
Do you have family traditions?
Tom: I grew up with these traditions – We always had a sit down meal together for all of our meals. Lunch was always at noon and supper was right after school and before bed we had a bowl of ice cream.
Vicky: Christmas, we go to church together, exchange names, have a nice meal together and always take a Christmas card picture. The kids always complain about taking the card picture, but they sure enjoy receiving cards from others in the mail. We also cut are own Christmas Tree.
In recent years we have gone cosmic bowling as a family on New Year’s Eve – we all enjoy this.
At Easter, we go to Church and the Easter bunny hides each kids’ baskets outside near a spot in which they have chores. For example, Evelyn loves her cats and feeds them fresh milk each day, so her basket was by them this last year. Collin mixes feed for the cows and heifers each day so his basket was there and Elaine has a horse so hers was by her horse feed. We also dye eggs.
Best advice for parents?
Vicky: Keep life simple. Friends and family matter.
What do you hope for your children?
Vicky: Live out their passions and keep life simple.
Don’t try to keep up with others, do what makes you happy and do that well.
What does your family do for fun?
Vicky: With operating a dairy farm, we stay pretty close to the farm, but we still do get away. I find that we treasure simple times aways. Events or outings don’t have to be grand and glorious. For example, we might get evening chores done and run to St. Cloud and go out to eat at Texas Roadhouse or Golden Eagle for pasta night. On Sunday’s we might go snowmobiling or on side by sides as a family – as in the country you can go for miles on gravel roads.
How do you balance work and personal life?
Vicky: Operating a dairy farm, having children, being a mom and having a professional career can be really hard. People say, that you need to have work, life balance and I do not believe there is a perfect balance. You simply need to figure out what works for your situation. For us this can change with season at my work or the farm and the age of our children. Whatever your situation is, the biggest thing is making time for each other. With Tom being in the barn when I arrive home from work each evening, it is not uncommon for us to see each other for less than two hours each day during the workweek, so this becomes very important.
Advice for newlyweds?
Vicky: Budget and plan. We see many people think that they need to get all this ‘stuff’ right away. Wait and earn it.
Advice for a new mom?
Vicky: Know yourself – Ask for help if you get overwhelmed. Talk to others – sometimes just a chat with someone can make all the difference. Keep life simple. Remember that what you see on social media is not always a true reflection of real life and that you don’t have to keep up with ‘what society thinks you should be doing’.
Advice for families?
Vicky: Because both Tom and I have working careers we don’t have much time together so we need to be intentional about this time together. We have to plan for this and make it happen. Don’t just take each other for granted.
Tom: Your children are watching and learning from you. Do things together, if you don’t do things together your children will think that is what families do. When you do things together you can have fun either through work or play.
What are you looking forward to?
Tom: We are very close to a lot of firsts in our family as we send a child off to college and the girls take on additional responsibilities at the farm. This transition time as a parent has mixed emotions but at the end of the day, you know that they are growing and becoming adults that have a passion.
What have you learned from your family?
Vicky: All of our children are so different, but as parents you need to talk with them and they need to know that you are for them. For example, Collin wanted to do online school for several years and we said no. Finally, one day I was riding with Tom in the tractor and I told him that I think we need to listen to Collin and allow him to do online school with set expectations. Since then, we had a totally different child ones he was listened to and we understood him.
What are ways your family connects with the community?
Vicky: If you have ever seen a local church bazar you know that community matters. We belong to the St. Rose of Lima Parish and annually they hold a parish festival each Labor Day weekend. Thousands of people attend this event each year, many that our family does not now. To make this event happen, the entire parish will come today the day before, day of and day after to help. The day of the event itself all parishioners will work a 2-3 hour shift, even our children. Over the years, our children have come to have this weekend be a highlight of the summer, even though they will ‘work’ throughout the weekend.
Also in the St. Rosa Community is the work of the St. Rosa Jaycees of which Tom is involved with. Now keep in mind that St. Rosa is a town that has a church, store and bar and population of 68. But over the summer, the town will more than double with it’s softball program which the Jaycee’s sponsor. This past year, they had around 80 kids and both Tom and Vicky coached either children’s team in which Elaine was a caption and Evelyn pitched.
I also am involved in the Melrose Holiday Kickoff planning committee. This committee plans and organizes the activities and parade that takes place the day after Thanksgiving each year in Melrose. In addition, she served on the CentraCare Advisory Board of the Melrose campus.
Favorite family memory?
Tom: I have lots. Each year I take action photos of the kids on the farm. With Vicky at work, she does not get to see the kids working on the farm, so I take action photos of them doing various different things on the farm. For example, Collin driving a tractor, Elaine stock chopping and Evelyn helping me change a tire. Then at Christmas Vicky puts them into a Shutterfly book for each of the kids each year.
Vicky: The lake. A family relative has a cabin on Little Birch Lake and on Sunday’s we try to get out to the lake if possible or even during the week after chores – I grew up on a farm also.
Fast forward to today – we still like to go to this cabin on Little Birch Lake on Sunday’s when possible. Tom makes it a priority to work as little as possible on the farm on Sunday’s so we try to relax and have some family time on Sunday’s.
What are your children interested in these days?
Vicky: Collin – loves to tinker with motors and machinery, anything outdoors, animals, fishing, snowmobiles.
Elaine – wants to go to a large-scale rodeo someday, horse, country music concerts, friends
Evelyn – anything with action, sports, music
Advice for people facing adversity?
Vicky: Ask yourself what can you control and take it one step at a time
Tell us about your family farm.
Vicky: We own and operate a dairy and crop farm north of Freeport. Tom is the fifth generation Herkenhoff on this farm, Herkenhoff Central Dairy, Inc. We milk 175 Holstein cows and raise all of our calves, heifers and own replacements. We crop farm approximately 600 acres of corn, oats and alfalfa to feed our animals. We are a pretty green farm; in that I mean everything is John Deere – I guess that is a Herkenhoff thing. They believe in the quality and longevity of the equipment so all of our machinery is green – literally everything! (we even danced to John Deere Green at our wedding by Joe Diffie)
