Winner, winner, but no chicken dinner. There are only bragging rights for the June 2025 Nebraska Farmer cover story about the Joe and Kim Standerford family dairy farm in Richardson County, Neb., written and photographed by Elizabeth Hodges.
We want to thank our loyal readers who voted through their emails and texts for the top cover story of 2025 in Nebraska Farmer. Over the course of 2025, we featured all kinds of photos, families and topics.
We’ve covered visits to the state from Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, but we’ve also written about the perennial FFA range judging champions at West Holt, a talented FFA member at Paxton who started a dryland corn test plot, record feeder cattle prices at Valentine Livestock, and growing potatoes in Holt County.
Cream of the crop
While several other stories, most notably another Hodges article about swine and solar that graced our October cover, also received votes, the Standerford dairy family quickly emerged as the cream of the crop for 2025.
Among the most compelling aspects of that article was the fact that they have remained a small dairy, but they are still successful.
“There are maybe 10% of the dairy farms still running that I remember from growing up,” Joe Standerford said in the article. “The dairy industry is not just a corporate world. It is still a family business. Every animal you see on the farm — whether it’s a cat, dog, cow or calf — they have a name and their own personalities.”
Another important aspect of that story was the fact that the entire family is involved in the dairy. Plus, they serve agriculture in their local community by participating in the area fair and helping out, with Joe serving as president of the Richardson County Agriculture Society and as the fair dairy and beef superintendent.
Hats off from Nebraska Farmer to the Standerford family as the winning article for our cover contest. Watch next fall for details on voting for your favorite cover story for 2026.