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Brown County Farm Family

Loran and Heidi Sellner and Family

Sellner Dairy was homesteaded in 1858 by Loran’s great-great-grandfather, Hubert Zander, who emigrated from Prussia. The farm has since been handed down through generations with Loran’s mother, Grace Zander Sellner, being the only woman to inherit the farm. Loran and Heidi were married in 1992 and took over the operation a year later. Loran and Heidi have tripled the size of the farm’s dairy herd. In 2000, the Sellners built a new free-stall barn and parlor. After 15 years of needing non-family labor, finding quality employees became a challenge, which led Loran and Heidi to investigate transitioning to robotic milking. In 2016, the Sellners installed three A4 Lely robots to milk their cows.

Sellner Dairy is a 200-cow robotic operation with 175 heifers. Bull calves are sold at three to seven days. The Sellners also farm 300 acres of cropland, raising most of the feed needs of their herd. Crops include corn, corn silage, alfalfa and soybeans.

Loran oversees all aspects of the farm, including the operation of the milkers and the herd reproduction program. Heidi takes care of the baby calves, young stock, close up cows, and the farm’s financials. Heidi also works for the Minnesota Dairy Initiative Program. The Sellners’  youngest daughter, Gracie, helps her mom with the livestock and hauls loads and racks hay. Gracie will be a freshman at South Dakota State University this fall majoring in ag education with a minor in animal science. The Sellners’ other children, Adam and Maggie, have full-time jobs off the farm but come back to help with harvest. Adam and his wife, Haylee, live in New Ulm. Maggie and her fiancé, Tyler Kohout, will be getting married on the farm on August 5. 

The Sellners are very involved in the Brown County 4-H program and have served on the boards of the Brown County American Dairy Association and the Holstein Association. The Sellner children have all participated in the Sleepy Eye FFA chapter. Maggie was Brown County Dairy Princess in 2014 and Gracie is a current Brown County Dairy Princess. Heidi served on the Brown County Extension Committee and Loran coached Stark Bi County baseball.

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