In recognition for their family’s extensive involvement in agriculture and in their urban community, Miron Farm of Hugo has been selected as Minnesota Milk Producers Association’s 2019 Producer of the Year.

The Miron Farm includes Fran and Mary Ann Miron, sons Paul and Andrew and their families. The farm, established in 1887, is home to a 125-cow Holstein herd. The Miron family farms 800 acres and raises corn, alfalfa, mixed hay and soybeans.

Fran and Mary Ann purchased the farm in 1989 after leasing it from Fran’s parents for 13 years. They own 280 acres and lease the remaining acreage. Cows are milked in a 60-cow stanchion barn and housed in a 76 by 256 foot bedding pack barn recently converted to freestalls. Cows are fed a total mixed ration along with rotational grazing during the growing season. The Mirons also raise their own replacements, which number a little over 200 head.

All family members contribute in various ways to managing the operation. Fran helps with the dairy while Mary Ann provides daycare for all 10 grandchildren — the farm’s sixth generation — and washes all barn clothes, prepares meals, maintains business records, tends the garden, and cans and freezes produce for all.

Paul and Andrew, who live on the farm with their families, share all farm chores. Their wives, Kristy and Stacey, respectively, work off the farm. Their off-farm jobs help provide important work benefits such as insurance, Fran adds.

Education has been an important component in the lives of the Miron family over the years. Fran and Mary Ann’s four additional adult children work as agriculture or elementary school teachers.

COMMUNITY SUPPORTERS: Last September, Miron Farm hosted 2,000 people at the Washington County Breakfast on the Farm, featuring a pancake breakfast and a variety of farm activities to connect consumers to local agriculture and dairy farming.

“Dairy farming is truly a vocation which requires commitment to faith, family, friends and our farm,” Fran says. Their farm motto has focused on care of family, livestock and the land for more than a century. “We been very blessed with good friends and neighbors,” he adds.

Fran and Mary Ann are currently in the process of developing a transition plan for the farm. Thus far, Paul and Kristy and Andrew and Stacey are already invested in livestock and machinery.

Along with their dairy farm business commitments, family members also have made time to volunteer to serve in church, school, community and farm organizations. Fran has served as a Washington County commissioner for nearly seven years and as mayor of Hugo for 16 years. He is also on the Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation board of directors. Other family members are involved in local dairy promotion, Dairy Herd Improvement and Farm Bureau boards as well.

Helping educate the public about dairy farming is also something the Mirons enjoy. Last September, they hosted a "breakfast on the farm" to celebrate Washington/Ramsey County Farm Bureau's 100th anniversary and welcomed more than 2,000 visitors.

The family also provides annual scholarships to students studying agriculture in a post-secondary program.

2019 MMPA PRODUCER OF THE YEAR: Lucas Sjostrom (left), Minnesota Milk Producers Association executive director, congratulated Fran Miron and sons Paul and Andrew upon their farm’s selection as the 2019 MMPA Producer of the Year award winners.

Miron Farm will receive the MMPA Producer of the Year award Dec. 3 at the Minnesota Milk Dairy Conference & Expo at Treasure Island Resort and Casino in Welch.

As award winners, the family receives a scholarship toward educational programming, a trip to the Minnesota Milk Dairy Conference and Expo, and a framed and matted art print.