Travel to Hanska, Minn., and you likely know the Tauer family name, who not only is actively involved in their small community but was also named the Brown County Farm Family of the Year in 2022.
Different Kind of Workforce
The Tauers’ workforce is different than most. Since 2011, they have worked with the University of Minnesota through their MAST training program as a host farm for foreign interns, who work with the family for six months to a year at a time. A nearby dairy had been working with this program when the Taurers were looking for help and the rest is history. The interns gain an appreciation for American agriculture, learn how to work and get the skills needed to take back to their country. Altogether, they have hosted dozens of interns from countries in South America, Africa, Europe, India, Ukraine, Russia and Japan.
Although, David shares that the interns are pretty green when they come to work.
“The kids they tend to send us have a lot of accounting degrees, a lot of business degrees, or South American interns tend to come with those degrees, but those degrees are a lot more like an American vet tech degree,” he says. “A good share of our kids have zero prior farm experience, or their only farm experience was once they got to college.”
The Tauers match the student up with their interest and skill level, as to what responsibilities they take care of at their farm.
“Some interns come with some really strong machinery skills,” David says. “We try to see what they want to learn and what their strong skills are.”
By the requirements from the University of Minnesota, the interns are provided with housing and live in a house on the farm.
“A great perk of the program is the cultural experience that my kids gain through interacting with our interns,” Angie adds.
Generally, they host between two and three interns at a time that works with their current workforce which includes a local high school girl. David’s brother works on the weekends and fills in when needed. They also have a crew of former dairy and crop farmers that help us out as needed.
Strong Advocates
The Tauers, along with their children, Ruby, 12, and Adam, 9, represent both the third and fourth generations on their Minnesota dairy farm. David and Angie purchased the farm in 2008 from his parents, Robert and Darlene, who continue to help with the dairy. The family also runs 450 acres of crops, including corn, rye, alfalfa and various cover crops. All the crops are used to feed the farm’s livestock.
Outside of the farm, Angie is employed as a middle school science teacher at a private Catholic school. Before that, she worked in literacy education at their city library. Despite living in a rural area, incorporating agriculture into education was important to the Tauers.
“We live in a rural, small-town area,” she says. “While kids know there are farms around them, the actual education and the actual understanding of what happens is not always there.”
Approximately 10 kids out of 100 students that Angie sees are directly involved in agriculture. She worked with various organizations, including Midwest Dairy, to apply for grants to get funding for a curriculum that has brought egg education, along with dairy to the school.
“I got some Life on the Farm games, and we got some magazine subscriptions to agricultural publications that the kids could see,” she says. “We worked really hard to kind of spend time on curriculum development to make sure that it was in there.”
The second year the Taurer family opened their barn doors, hosting an on-the-farm enrichment day for middle schools who got to come out to the farm and helped with farm chores.
“We pulled all the professionals we work with, like our nutritionist, our banker, our A.I. rep,” she says. “And they all got a station at the farm, and they talked to the kids about what they did for a living.”
A spin-off from this agriculture literacy project is hosting the 2nd annual Story Time on the Farm – an opportunity for families to bring their kids to Tauer Dairy to read stories and take a tour of the farm. As a mom, Angie loves the experiences that her kids get every day living on a dairy farm. Sharing her passion for farming and reading is one way that she can give back to her community.
“Generations ago, it was always kind of like, ‘Oh, you’re just a farm kid,’” she says. “And, now that has really changed and there is a great career path forward. There are so many tracks in ag.”
