Responsibilities on the Farm Help Set Farm Kids Up for Success

Many dairy farm kids start working on their family farm at a young age with many starting by learning to help feed bottle calves. However, experts say as children grow, so should their responsibilities.

Anita Rokey of Rokeyroad Holsteins in northeast Kansas wholeheartedly agrees. Anita and her husband, Dwight, have seven children and Anita notes that raising their kids on the family dairy farm has certainly allowed their children to learn what it is like to be a part of a team workforce.

Teaching them firsthand the value of hard work and showcasing the varying degrees of responsibilities that are needed to own and operate a dairy farm is the first step to further develop farm kids. Rokey states that farmers need to remind themselves that raising kids on a dairy farm is setting them up for success, regardless of what the future looks like for them.

“Give your children responsibilities, let go of complete control over them and let them follow their dreams,” is the advice Anita offers to fellow dairy farmers.

The Rokey children: Leigha, 26; Amanda, 24; Benton, 23; Dillon, 21; Brandon, 18; Jenna, 14 and Larae, 10 all have offered a helping hand over the years on the family’s 128 Registered Holstein cow dairy farm.

When the Rokey children turn 10 they get to pick out a show calf free of charge for them to raise. “This teaches them huge responsibility to own something and to learn to care for it,” Rokey states. She notes that they have raised their children differently – from the oldest to the youngest. “The older kids had to roll up their sleeves and work their tails off.” 

Demonstrating the ability to not only show up, but also knowing how to work hard, is what sets farm kids, like the Rokey children apart.

At age 14, the Rokey children are paid hourly for helping with milking and both Dwight and Anita allowed their children to follow areas of the farm that they showed interest in. “It all happened kind of naturally,” Anita adds.

Growing up their oldest son, Benton, enjoyed fitting show cows and while dabbling in construction work off the farm, Benton currently helps raise some of the farms’ heifers. His younger brother, Dillon earned a diesel mechanic degree and did the bulk of the feeding when living on the farm. Dillon now hauls livestock full-time but returns back to the farm to help whenever a repair needs to be done.

While Brandon grew up loving to show dairy cattle and was very much involved in both the genomics and registration part of the dairy, he has decided to attend culinary school after graduating high school.

“Their skillset learned on the family farm will serve them well in life, regardless of what path they take,” Anita says.

Leigha, the Rokey’s oldest children worked off the farm at Kilgus Dairy in Fairbury, Ill., for a year after she graduated high school. Her parents say it was a very good experience for their daughter to see greener pastures and understand how to live and work differently than they do at home. Coming back to Kansas, Leigha worked for another dairy before doing missionary work in Uganda. Today she works full-time on Rokey’s family dairy, working closely with her father handling dairy management work – from herd health work, to feeding and everything else. Recently Leigha has had conversations with her parents about investing in the family dairy.

Daughter Amanda is married and lives off the farm and the second youngest, Jenna, is about to finish up her freshman year in high school. In-between her studies, Jenna helps with calf chores.

Anita reports their youngest daughter, Larae, 10, wants to be outside as much as possible and helps with pretty much everything.

While all of the Rokey children helped on the family farm in different ways, their parents say that being a part of a team environment, learning the value of hard work and understanding commitment and sacrifices will launch all of their kids for future success—whether it's on the farm or off.

Other farm responsibilities that can help further engage kids on the farm level include:

• Registrations. If you have registered cattle, have your children enter, coordinate and monitor cattle registrations.
• Data Entry. Enter calvings into the computer.
• Genomic Assistance. Collect, monitor and coordinate genomic samples.
• Herd health. Generate shot lists and administer shots.
• Farm bookwork. Enter bill pay or conduct payroll.

Experts say that continuing to make agriculture attractive to the younger generations by utilizing social media accounts and technology really does speak to teens, encouraging them to help out more. Other ways to further develop farm kids’ responsibility is persuading youth to assist with farm tours and allow the younger generation to join in on meetings with outside team members, like A.I. companies, nutritionist, veterinarians or lenders to understand other areas of the dairy.