The Stockman family was named the Cass County Farm Family of the Year by the University of Minnesota Extension Service. Pictured are Nancy, Molly, Austin and Brad.

Brad and Nancy Stockman and children, Molly, 16; and Austin, 14; own a dairy farm that produces milk for Land O' Lakes Creamery.

The family, currently Crystal Lake Hackensack residents, plans to move to their Stock Haven Holsteins property on Highway 87, east of Backus.

Brad grew up on a dairy farm in Mcleod County, Minnesota, and attended the agriculture-business program at Willmar VoTech.

Nancy, originally from Chisholm, was in software consulting before moving to this area.

The family first raised beef cattle while Brad was a partner in Stockman Trucking & Transfer, because the beef cattle didn't require as much of a time commitment as a dairy operation.

Now that Brad's brother Rick owns and operates Stockman Trucking & Transfer, Brad can concentrate on dairy farming full time.

The Stockman's are enrolled in MN Dairy Herd Improvement Association and the US Holstein Association. They have received awards including the Top Quality Milk Producer Award and the Progressive Genetics Award.

Brad likes the genetic component of raising and milking dairy cattle.

He has more than 100 registered Holstein dairy cattle.

Using artificial insemination, the heifers are impregnated. The resulting embryos are flushed out by a veterinarian, and implanted into recipient beef cattle that serve as surrogates.

Essentially, a beef cow will give birth to a registered Holstein dairy calf.

"It's rewarding and fun to watch calves being born," Nancy said, of her favorite part of farming.

The calves, averaging 80-100 pounds at birth, are bottle fed for 2-3 months.

The boy calves are sold and they raise the heifers.

Molly helps out with "calf chores" including bottle-feeding newborn calves and later feeding them grain.

Austin assists with the dairy operation with milking by running equipment. They use an automated pipeline system with mechanical pumps.

Austin also helps with haying. The Stockmans grow alfalfa, corn, and grass hay. Austin is also in his first year of 4-H and showed a heifer at the Cass County Fair last weekend.

Nancy frequently runs errands for the farm, whether picking up feed, or tractor, milker or bailer parts.

Fifty cows need to be milked twice a day: at 5 a.m. and again at 5 p.m.

With that time commitment, they haven't been on a vacation in a while.

But, all the work is rewarding. "I feel good about a hard days work," Brad said.