Rick Mindemann always knew he wanted a farm of his own, but that 10-year-old boy from Sussex, Wis., could never have anticipated the path that led him there. In 2025, Mindemann Farms celebrates 35 years in The Business Breed, a boyhood dream turned reality. 

From a young Marine who returned home and built a trucking company, to raising a family and discovering a love for Angus cattle, the chapters of Mindemann’s story are a testament to the value of hard work and selfless service.

Rick and his wife, Leslie, raised three sons on their operation in Sullivan, Wis. — Jason, Aric and Andy — and it remains a family affair today. The Mindemanns work together to farm around 1,800 acres of corn, soybeans, hay and pasture. They offer registered Angus bulls and females for sale annually, and the farm’s freezer beef program markets about 125 steers a year.

In addition to off-farm jobs, Aric and Andy remain involved in the operation. Both have their own herds, raising cattle with their wives and children. Rick and Leslie’s six grandchildren also embrace this way of life.

“Every one of them works on the farm from driving tractors to calving cows,” Rick says. “Everybody is involved — it’s a family operation.”

Formative years

It’s hard to believe prior to 1990, Rick’s cattle experience was limited. He grew up on a small dairy farm, home to about 60 Holstein cows and a handful of chickens, ducks and geese, a typical farm of the ’50s. By the time he was 12, his family sold the livestock. Though they continued to live on the farm, his father began hauling fuel oil.

Rick graduated high school in June of 1967. He worked as an apprentice at a major printing company until late 1968, when — like many other young men at the time — he was drafted to the Vietnam War. At 19 years old, he reported for induction in March of 1969, alongside high school classmates and friends. 

While there, they were told volunteers were needed for the Marine Corps. As the day progressed and no one volunteered, Rick says he and another young man decided, “Oh, what the heck, let’s go in the Marine Corps.” They soon found themselves on an airplane headed to boot camp in San Diego, Calif.

Assigned to Platoon 3056, he completed an eight-week course and extended training, followed by a 30-day leave at home. Rick reported to Yuma, Ariz., for more training, and Dec. 18, 1969, was on a flight to Vietnam.

Returning home Feb. 8, 1971, Rick spent two weeks at Camp Pendleton in California before being discharged. He says they advised him to wear civilian clothes due the country’s current angst surrounding the war.

So that’s what we did. Once I got home, I went to work right away and left that all behind me.” — Rick Mindemann

Rick bought a dump truck and began hauling out of a local quarry, a venture that eventually grew to be Mindemann Trucking. He married Leslie in 1974 after the pair had hit it off when she came home with his sister on spring break a few years prior. Together, they ran the company and its fleet of more than one hundred trucks for 38 years.

On the farm at last

Nearly 20 years after Rick returned home from Vietnam, the opportunity to fulfill his hopes of owning a farm finally presented itself. Rick says they purchased the ground near Sullivan, Wis., and then thought, “Now what are we going to do?”