Mike and Rebekah Patterson Family
Mike comes from a long line of farmers; he is the fifth generation in his family to farm. Mike and Rebekah’s children are aiming to be the 6th generation. Both sets of Mike’s grandparents had dairy cows. When his parents, Gary and Julie, started farming they broke off into raising hogs. Mike was raised on a 250-sow farrow-to-finish operation. In the late 1990s, Mike’s parents were looking to change their operation and helped start a sow co-op, Minnesota Family Farms, which is still operational today. Mike invested in the co-op at age 18 and built his first finishing barn the following year. Mike & Rebekah were married in 1999, and doubled the finishing operation in 2006. In 2008, Mike’s dad retired and Mike’s sister and her husband, Beth and Aaron Helgeson, along with Mike, took over his shares in the co-op.
The Pattersons have 3,000 head of finishing hogs on the farm and they own another 2,000 head 50-50 with Mike’s sister. The Pattersons market about 10,000 head annually. The family also runs a small show pig operation consisting of 30 sows. Country Girls Show Pigs Partnership is owned and operated by the Pattersons’ daughters Madeline, Isabelle, Julia and Leia. Mike and Rebekah have been involved with the state and local pork producers’ associations over their farming careers. Mike was honored in 2021 as the Minnesota Pork Promoter of the Year by the Minnesota Pork Board.
The Patterson family is active in their local FFA and FFA Alumni Association. Every year the family dedicates some land for growing pumpkins or sweet corn that is sold to benefit the local FFA chapter. Mike and Rebekah’s daughter Maddie was a FFA Star Farmer finalist and national runner-up in swine proficiency. Their daughter Belle was state swine proficiency winner in FFA and Julia was a swine proficiency runner-up this year. Mike, Maddie, and Belle have all earned American FFA degrees—Julia and Leia aren't yet eligible.
The family is also very active in 4-H. The Patterson children have all been involved in livestock judging and showing pigs. Mike helped coach the local 4-H livestock judging team for seven years. Mike has been the local swine superintendent for over a decade.
Mike works off the farm at Compeer Financial and Rebekah is a reading specialist for Northfield Schools. The Pattersons are members of Hegre Lutheran church in Kenyon.