Best Places to Raise Farm Kids: Chippewa County, Minnesota

Missy and Chad Ochsendorf are living proof that Chippewa County, Minn., is a great place to raise kids. They gave up their careers in the Twin Cities to move back and raise their kids on the family farm—a farm that has been in the family for four generations.

"This is a good place to dream," says Missy of life in Chippewa County.

The family (Kaileigh, 16; Kami, 10; Alise, 8; and Jacob, 3) is active in 4-H, and they have cattle and horses to keep them busy with chores at home.

"Home" is west-central Minnesota, a flat land of black earth, corn and soybeans. Hundred-year-old white churches with neat cemeteries dot the prairie, with historic evidence that Scandinavian and German Lutherans settled the land. Being Minnesota, there are also lakes and rivers to add scenic beauty. Small towns with railroad origins hoist small grain elevators onto the horizon. County seat Montevideo is the big town, an old trading center in the valley at the confluence of the Minnesota and the Chippewa rivers. It even has objective proof that it is a great place to live: In 2004 it was named an All-America City.

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An excellent school system gives "Monte" further reason for pride. Superintendent David Baukol talks glowingly of the community's support as he shows off the middle school's technical lab, where kids get hands-on practice with aeronautics, robotics and alternative energy projects. The agriculture program at the high school is superior. As proof, Baukol points out that the local FFA chapter has 80 members.

In the northwest part of the county, Mike and Jen Berven's kids are also 4-Hers. Rebecca, 13, Haakon, 10, and Kade, 7, have sheep, cattle and horses to keep them busy. (Son Keith, 21, and daughter Sutton, 2, are too old and young, respectively, for 4-H.)

But Mike and Jen keep the kids busy with other farm chores too. As an organic operation, weeding is a family affair. "If we have a batch of cocklebur, we all are out there," Jen says. "Living on the farm and being in 4-H gives the kids a sense of responsibility and problem solving."

It also helps them work toward their dreams.

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