About
There is something very rewarding for me personally about working outside with my hands, doing hard and dirty work that makes me sweaty, tired and sore.
If you are visiting this page and expecting the same dry bios and recitations of historical facts usually found on traditional “About Us” website pages, you are in for a treat. Rest assured that all those mundane details can certainly come later, should you decide that you are interested in owning one of the beautiful Jersey cows that we raise and train.
For now, however, grab some coffee and take a moment to experience some of the cow-centric information available on our site. Read our articles on a wide variety of cow-related subjects. View our family work cow video offerings, too. You will find them filled with bodacious bovines and the natural, but sometimes raw beauty of life on a working farm. We hope that our site and the information we offer here will help you to determine if this journey is the right one for you, as it was for us.
A Full Circle
1982 Yearbook photo – Gathering eggs at the school poultry in 10th grade.
When most people see dirt, they see something to avoid, to sweep away. I see it as an invitation to adventure. The blood that keeps my heart beating for another day.
Farming wasn’t really our heritage, but the soil was, at least in some small way. Some of my earliest – and happiest – childhood memories involved being up close and personal with dirt. Lots and lots of dirt.
Pushing those yellow, metal Tonka trucks around on the ground, I spent hours digging huge holes with shovels, hauling the excavated dirt into massive piles, and then steam rolling over my creations time after time, just to rebuild them all the very next day. After my childhood toys were put away, a four year stint at an agricultural focused boarding school followed, providing even more daily exposure to dirt, along with chickens, dairy cows, crops, and all the modern tractors and machinery commonly used on traditional farms.
After that brief interlude, however, life once again intervened. Over the next couple decades I would see myself moving farther and farther away from the soil as I first worked in the trades and then moved on to a visually creative corporate job. Even though I found both types of work interesting, something was still missing – and I think the missing ingredient was the dirt.
A Return to the Dirt
After years away, my family and I have made a full return to the dirt that I have loved since childhood. But instead of farming as most modern day farmers do, by relying on sheds full of massive – and expensive – machinery to farm thousands of acres, we set out to grow something different on our farm and instill that difference in our kids.
Our farm has tractors, too, but here machinery is usually optional, instead of mandatory. Here on these certified organic acres, we are more apt to grab a shovel and work up a sweat just to experience the sense of honesty and contentment that can never seem to be found when riding in an air-conditioned tractor cab, where you can never really feel the warmth of the sun or the cooling wind on your face.
About Our Jersey Cows
The Jersey breed originated from a small island in the English Channel known as the Island of Jersey. With an aesthetically beautiful bone structure, these smart cows are known for their rich, creamy milk, their pretty dished faces with large eyes, and their inquisitive dispositions. When bred and cared for properly, Jersey cows quickly become honest partners on the farm, calving with ease, and providing an abundance of exceptionally rich, nutritious milk for both a calf and the farm family to enjoy.
Smaller in stature than the Holstein and many other breeds, the Jersey cow is an excellent grazer and forager and better suited for smaller homesteads and farm settings. Extremely intelligent, the Jerseys we breed, raise, and train can also be taught to provide light draft power on the farm and assist with other farm chores, such as clearing weedy or brushy areas. Raised on raw milk straight from the udder, standing grass, and hay during the winter months, our calves begin their training at an early age and enjoy being handled throughout their lives.
Are You Ready to Learn More?
If you are new to the idea of keeping a milk cow, we can help remove the mystery and ensure that you understand how to properly care for a cow and truly enjoy the gifts a healthy, grass-fed Jersey cow can provide. Maybe you are already familiar with family milk cows but looking for one better suited to thrive on grass and forage instead of requiring grain supplementation. Our cows thrive on standing grass and forage, along with hay during the winter.
This site, along with our grass-fed family milk cow site, is where you just might discover a whole new passion for life. We invite you to explore our site and then contact us to take the next step. You may just find yourself coming back to the dirt, as we did, and finding the same deep satisfaction.