Elsenpeters are county’s Farm Family of the Year

Seventy-six families from around the state, one from each participating county, have been named a “2012 Farm Family of the Year” by the University of Minnesota. Selected as the Wright County Farm Family were the Elsenpeters of Maple Lake, who operate Valley View Dairy. Dan and Erica Elsenpeter and Luke and Elizabeth Elsenpeter are 5th generation dairy farmers on the family farm that was homesteaded in 1869. Brothers Luke and Dan took ownership of the farm from their uncle and mother in 2004. Today they farm in partnership where they milk 90 cows organically in a parlor that was installed in 2008. The cows are on a rotational grazing system and their milk is shipped to Organic Valley Co-op in LaFarge, WI. Luke and Dan also raise certified organic beef as well as run approximately 600 acres. On the farm, Dan and Luke are co-operators. They get help from their older brother, Jim, and their Uncle John. Dan and Erica’s children, Henry, George, and Harvey also help out whenever they can. The youngest children, Luke and Elizabeth’s daughter, Evelyn, and Dan and Erica’s son, Ralph, will get involved when they are a bit older. In the community, the Elsenpeters are members of Crow River Sustainable Ag Association, NFIB, NFO, and Farm Bureau. They were also featured in a Maple Lake Messenger article on local organic farms in 2009. 
More information will appear in this week’s Messenger.