LOOK INSIDE FOR OUR CENTRAL PLAINS DAIRY EXPO PREVIEW EDITION!
Volume 27, No. 2
Valuing employees
“All dairy, all the time”™
Carrying on solo as the sixth generation
Hesselink continues farming without brother
Farmer panel discusses managing workforce
By Stacey Smart
By Amy Kyllo
stacey.s@dairystar.com
amy.k@star-pub.com
ROCHESTER, Minn. — Ensuring employees feel valued and understand the signicance of their work was an employee retention tip shared during a panel-style seminar entitled “Keys to Building and Retaining Your Team of Successful Employees.” The seminar was held during the Form-A-Feed Dairy Conference Jan. 16-17 at the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester. “If you care about people, they’ll care a lot more about what they’re doing,” said Andrew LeClair, one of the panelists. “Everybody’s the same, whether you’re the owner or whether you’re a milker. Whatever you’re doing, we’re all people.” LeClair is a manager at Enchanted Dairy near Little Falls. There, they milk 2,000 cows in a rotary parlor with 20 employees. Another panelist was Hans Breitenmoser, who owns Breitenmoser Family Farm near Merrill, Wisconsin, where they milk 500 cows and have 16 employees. The nal panelist was Abe Sanchez, a manager at D&D Dairy near Rushford where they milk 1,000 cows and have 10 employees. The panel was moderated by Mario Solis Flores of Form-A-Feed Inc. Good employees worthy of promotion are teachable, the panelists said. Breitenmoser said much on his farm is learnable, but employees must understand that their new role may mean a greater amount of responsibility. “You never know who your rock star is going to be,” Breitenmoser said. “People have shown up and innocently wanted a milking job, and then 15 years later, they’re running day-to-day operations.” LeClair agreed. “It’s people that have a desire to learn, people that have a desire to do a good job and that want to know more,” he said. “Some people are that way, and some people are not.” Turn to EMPLOYEE PANEL | Page 5
March 8, 2025
OOSTBURG, Wis. — When Scott Hesselink was in his early 20s, it appeared he was destined for a career in mechanics. He went to school for auto-body repair and favored working in a body shop over being a dairy farmer. “I love cars and motorcycles and had an interest in other things,” Scott said.
However, he was back to the farm in a full-time manner by the time he was 25. Scott joined his dad, Mark, and his two brothers when his father offered him an opportunity to come home. Now, Scott is the sixth generation running Quonset Farms with his wife, Lisa. Turn to HESSELINK | Page 6 STACEY SMART/DAIRY STAR
Sco� and Lisa Hesselink take a break in the farm office Jan. 9 at Quonset Farms near Oostburg, Wisconsin. Sco� is the sixth genera�on on his family’s farm where they milk 1,075 cows and farm about 1,500 acres.
A blast of winter weather
MARK KLAPHAKE/DAIRY STAR
Jersey heifers stand in the snow March 4 at Josh Wolbeck’s farm near Sauk Centre, Minnesota. Wolbeck milks 65 cows. Some areas of Minnesota received over 10 inches of snow during the snowstorm.