Breeder Profile

"I responded very quickly [to treatment] and am doing well," Les said. "But I get up in the morning and I feel like I have the flu. I feel all the aches and pains from old injuries."
Les is not doing farmwork while in recovery mode, which will be about six months to one year.
This has put additional stress on Jo and their family, who has stepped up to help get the chores done. The Olsons have four children who all grew up doing chores on the farm: Kaysie and her husband, Todd Manion, and their three kids, Morgyn, Mason and McKinnley with one on the way; Katie and her husband, Brian Dattilo, and their kids, Logan and Maddie; Kelsey and her husband, Christopher Swearingen; and Aaron and his fiancé, Gretchen Thomason, and Aaron's son, Brody, and Gretchen's children, Emma and Jacob.
Although they have built up a farm and a family in Spring Valley, their dairying journey started in Blue Earth, Minn., on Les' family farm. Les and Jo farmed together with Les' dad and three brothers. Land in that county was expensive, so the couple set out to find a more affordable farm to raise the farm's youngstock. They moved to their current site in 1981.
"It only took us about six months until we decided to start milking cows here," Jo said.
By 1985, they were able to buy the farm from Les' parents and officially dairy on their own.
Although they had dabbled in using Brown Swiss to breed a few of their Holsteins in the earlier years, their love for the brown breed came when their kids started participating in 4-H.
"When we had 200 black and white cows, the kids couldn't figure out which ones were theirs. So we got a couple cute [Brown] Swiss for the kids," Jo said.
Those cute calves turned into building up their Brown Swiss herd to create record-making cows.
"Production has always been important to us," Jo said.
The first was IE Olson Thane Jane, the first cow in the Brown Swiss breed to make 50,000 pounds of milk in her 365-day lactation.
"That's what drew attention to our farm," Jo said.
Jane also had offspring that was successful, including her daughter, Thane Jesse Vigor Jessa, a cow that received top protein and production awards from the Brown Swiss Breed.
Another cow, Thane Monopoly Mitzy, was the No. 1 Brown Swiss Progressive Performance Ranking cow in the nation, as was her daughter, Olson Brinks Melody.
"We sold a lot of bulls out of that family," Les said.
The Olsons have also exhibited cattle at local and regional shows along with World Dairy Expo. One of their animals was named Reserve All American summer yearling and they have had about 15 animals nominated for All American titles.
"We didn't always care if we won the class, but we wanted to show people it was possible to have good producing cows that looked good," Les said about their experience showing. "Sometimes we focus so much on type that we forget those cows have to pay the bills."
Jo agreed.
"If they're pretty, that's nice. But you don't get much money for standing fourth at Expo. Showing is a pride thing, not necessarily a pay thing," she said.
In addition to raising award-winning animals, the Olsons have other fun memories of their dairying career. Every fall, the University of Minnesota dairy judging team would stop to use the Olsons cows for practice. And both Katie and Aaron won the state FFA dairy judging competitions. In 2001, Kelsey spent the year promoting dairy as Princess Kay of the Milky Way, and in 2013 had her wedding reception on the farm. They also made a lot of memories this summer with their daughter, Kaysie, and her family, as they helped prepare for the sale.
There were challenges, including a low income some years, a struggle to find employees and working long hours.
"The toughest thing is all the things we missed along the way, or things we couldn't get to or had to leave early from because we had to milk," Jo said.
But being able to be with their family each day on the farm far outweighed any challenges, they said.
"It was a good place to raise our kids," Jo said.
They all learned to work together, but had fun while doing it.
"I remember in my younger years when I was milking and Kelsey and Kaysie would come and stand on the buckets to help," Les said with a smile. "We were so fortunate."
The Olsons feel fortunate to have had such a fulfilling dairying career as it comes to a close in September.
"I love it and the sale will be a very difficult day - but we get to spend more time with the kids and the grandkids," Les said.
Despite the upcoming difficult day, the Olsons will try to continue living their life using one of their philosophies.
"We always tried to do the best we could and be happy with that," Les said. "We always try to remember to enjoy the good things."