If you had asked us 20 years ago, we would have never guessed that we would be raising Jersey cows for a small dairy operation and running 30 Angus cross cattle to provide farm fresh beef. John and I started with a dream of having a farm, but I don’t think that what we have now is anything we imagined.
Our dream started with John’s passion for cows. He dreamed of being a large animal veterinarian since he was 5. He was raised on a dairy and feedlot. I was raised on a small acreage crop farm with a herd of 30 Herford cows. When we had been married for a few years, John started our operation with 14 Nevada range cows. I thought he was crazy. He looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Trust me.” Well, it worked…kind of. We have had some trails, and maybe we shouldn’t have started with range cattle, but life goes on. We calved them out and lost one calf. John then comes home with a Holstein heifer calf as a replacement. Yeap, you guessed it, our first dairy cow, Sugar. Ever heard the expression, “if you have one, you might as well have 32+.” That is where we are at today!
We definitely do this as a family. John and I have 2 boys and they have been doing chores since they could walk. We find it important to teach our boys responsibility, work ethic and general kindness to all God’s creatures, human and animal alike.
We believe in healthy cattle and quality product. We follow the more conventional methods of cattle raising. We grain feed our beef for 30 days to finish and the milking cows get an allotment of grain with each milking. We feel that you get better tasting beef and the dairy girls can keep up with the demand of milk production. Please ask us questions about our operations, we are happy to answer anything and let you decide what is right for you and your family.