Celebrating twenty years milking our cows

Today, we celebrate 20 years of milking cows! We are not sure how 20 years have come and gone, but do recall the day we started milking cows. We had only 24 heifers when we first began milking. It took us longer to clean up the milking parlor than it did to milk those 24 cows. It was a challenging first few weeks getting those cows acquainted with our newly-built milking parlor; and also getting ourselves acquainted with a brand new job.

Months prior to our milking facilities being complete we would go over to a neighboring dairy farm to help milk their cows and a few of ours that had recently had calves. Those days were so valuable to use because we got to learn from a family that had been milking for many years and we got to familiarize our family with the process.

In the first few weeks, we were learning the ropes just as much as our new cows. A few months after that October day, we purchased a wonderful herd of 82 cows from a dairy farm going out of business. From then on, things progressed, and now look where we are today! We have grown our herd to 150 Holstein cows and opened a single-farm Creamery in our community – but we are still the first-generation family farmers who started it all 20 years ago. Looking back over the past two decades, we cannot help but feel grateful for choosing this path for our family. Most would consider working every day of the year a curse rather than a blessing. And waking up early to stay  up up working well into the night is not something that most would be interested or willing to take on. However, we each feel incredibly lucky to work in an industry for which we are very passionate about. 

Though most days do not come without a challenge, or two, we couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

Photo (left to right): (Back Row) Debbie Takes, Riley Takes, Troy Takes, Dustin Takes, Dan Takes; (Front Row) Tori Takes, Josie Rozum and Tyler Takes.