We are an organic, grass-based dairy farm.
Our animals don't get fed any grain whatsoever.
We bottle milk in glass bottles and paper cartons.
We have a drinkable yogurt product that currently is offered in plain and vanilla.
And then we also bottle heavy whipping cream and chocolate milk.
We milk about 130 or 140 cows.
We have two calving windows, about half of them calve from March to May, and the other
half calve in September or October.
The farm was purchased by my grandfather in 1926, and then passed on to my parents in
the late 30s, and then Florence and I bought out my parents in 1969.
Our cows are on pasture for about seven months of the year, from April through November.
One of my favorite things to do in the spring is to sit there among the cows grazing and
just listening to them munch away at it.
To me that's a really neat sound.
And we milked them in a milking parlor on the farm.
There's machines that milk them that all automated.
Our normal procedure for milking is we dip the teats in an iodine teat dip, and about
three or four streams are taken out of each quarter to make sure that the milk is normal.
And then it's wiped, the udders wiped with a clean dry towel that we laundry there twice
a day in our milk house, and then the milk is applied.
The milk then is stored in a bulk tank right in our milking parlor, and then we have a
small bulk tank on wheels that we bring to our milking parlor and transfer the milk into
that portable tank.
Once we get it here, we do some testing on it, state mandated testing.
Once it passes those tests, then we transfer it into the raw milk holding tank.
In the raw milk holding tank, we draw it out into the pasteurizer, pasteurize it, separate
it if it's getting separated, and then we send it on to the holding tanks, which hold
it for the fillers.
We have two fillers, a carton filler and a bottle filler, and then they get the milk
it's bottled, packaged and put in the cooler.
There's several pasteurization methods.
There's VAT pasteurization, which is low temp.
Low temp is run at about 145 degrees, but it's held for about 30 minutes at that temp.
We have an HTST pasteurizer, which stands for high temp short time.
We pasteurize our milk about 170 degrees, and it gets held at that temp for only 20 seconds.
We feel that this is probably the best method.
We get the best tasting milk, and without ruining the health benefits of the milk.
And then we have a relationship with co-op partners.
Co-op partners then picks up our milk and delivers it to their essential warehouse, and from
there it's delivered to all the co-ops around the Twin Cities.
Our business has to be economically viable, has to be environmentally friendly, and then
also the social aspect.
We want to be an asset to the community.
GrassFeed is important for the consumer for many reasons, and it has, along with the fact
that it has higher levels of omega-3's and CLA's that are health-benefit in the human
diet.
We also maintain grass in the landscape that also prevents erosion.
We farm right on the banks of Sand Creek, which is one of the higher contributing tributaries
of the Minnesota River, contributing forest phosphates and sediment.
So we're able to keep our land here and not having it eroded into the street.
Carrying on the tradition of the family farm is a big thing.
From a personal perspective, the flexibility of being close to home and being able to make
my kids' school functions is a big plus for me.
I used to work in the cities, and it was tough to get away to go through the school activities.
And then just being here on the farm is a big plus for me as well.
And it's very nice just having the cows out there on the grass.
They're laying around, and their calves are laying around, and their calves are running
around and romping.
It's just beautiful, that long line of cows with color to calc parade, and people will
stop in cars and sit and watch the cows come home.
It's a thing of beauty.
It's very pretty.
