Saturday, June 15, 2024 | Country Acres • Page 1
Country Acres Saturday, June 15, 2024
PRSRT STD ECR U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT #861 Sauk Rapids, MN 2 Second Ave S Suite 135 Sauk Rapids MN 56379
Focusing on Today’s Rural Environment
Volume 11, Edition 09
son Remembering a
Thoennes family wants farm stress to be topic of conversation BY SARAH COLBURN STAFF WRITER
URBANK — Charles Thoennes taps his index finger against an old newspaper clipping laying on the kitchen table. His eyes smile with the memories, but his face twists and his voice betrays him. He recalls the day in June 2003 that his son Craig, a volunteer firefighter, and he posed for a newspaper photo highlighting the two running the family dairy in Urbank. “Those were better days,” Charles said. The days before Craig, 41, died under the weight of
maintaining the farm. It is a grief that Charles cannot shake. His wife, Craig’s mom, Kim sits at the table folding her hands, unfolding them and folding them again as tears stream unabashedly down her face and together, they tell the story of how Craig died — and how he lived. It has been five years and one day since the couple rushed home on June 15, 2019 from a trip to Fleet Farm. They got a call that Craig had been found dead in the farmyard with a bull, known for its hot temper, stamping around next to him, and the dairy cows bellowing.
Charles (from left) and Cra DAIRY STAR for the Dairy Star newspa ig Thoennes pause work in 2003 to have a phFILE PHOTO oto taken per. Craig died in a farm accident in 2019.
The family was alerted to Craig’s death by the regular milk truck driver, who had shown up that morning to find the bulk tank was less than half full. The driver called Craig’s uncle, who went to the farm and found Craig lying on the cement in the yard. Craig, his father said, likely died the night before, as he readied for the evening milking. The cows missed that milking and the one the next morning. The death, Charles and Kim said, is one they want people to know about. In 2023 alone, 146 dairies in Minnesota closed their doors due to mounting financial pressures, drought conditions, inflation and higher costs of production, all combined with an aging workforce. “There are a lot of people who don’t know the dedication of a family dairy farm,” Charles said. “It’s all day, every day.” Charles knows.
He has been dairy farming since he was kid. He was working on a neighboring dairy farm when, in 1979, his dad retired and asked if he wanted to come home and run the farm with his brother. Later, he purchased his own farm. It is the place Craig and his sister, Alicia, grew up — spending their days outside playing, enjoying family picnics under a tree. Kim said Craig was around equipment from the time he could walk. “Craig always played with farm machinery — combines, tractors,” Kim said. “He could drive anything.” As an adult, he passed his farm toys on to his nieces, Payton and Faith, who his parents say he centered his life around. “(If he was in the field) and the girls were coming out, he’d drop everything,” Kim said. He taught Payton how to drive tractor and a skid loader, and how to back up with the best of them. In 2001, Craig and his father officially formed a family dairy farm partnership. They expanded from 50 cows to 70.
Craig owned half the cows; Charles owned the other half and the land. Craig bought a skid loader, something Charles never had but said lessened the manual labor. He said Craig used the loader for everything and was in it most days. His mother agreed. “(Farming) was all he ever wanted,” Kim said. And it was, until it wasn’t. Five years after the partnership began, Charles said Craig was anxious to break out on his own with his own herd. “The problem is, there’s work for two and money for one,” Charles said. “Money was tight to make it work for both of us.” Though hesitant, and all too familiar with the financial constraints of dairy farming, Charles said if Craig could hold off a few more years, he could take over the family farm when Charles turned 50. Charles feared from the beginning, and said so in the newspaper clipping about their partnership, that he didn’t want
Thoennes page 2 PHOTO BY SARAH COLBURN
Kim and Charles Thoennes look through a memory book May 20 at their home in Alexandria. The Thoenneses created the memory book after their son, Craig was killed by a bull five years ago.
ST R
This month in the
COUNTRY:
7
The newspaper of today is the history of tomorrow.
Watch for the next edition of Country Acres on July 20, 2024
11 Strawberries for the picking Villard
Publications
5
New at Redhead Creamery milk vodka Brooten Going for a Sunday drive Tiffany Klaphake column
15 150 years strong Carlos
24 Divergent Paths Nancy Packard Leasman column
19 Canning safety 101 St. Cloud
25 Star tractors Kensington
23 Country cooking Sauk Centre
29 Mini Sota Agricultural Children’s Museum Benson