Practices
“Our desire is to honor Jesus Christ in all that we do. We constantly ask Him for wisdom and insight into how He has created nature and how He wants us to care for it. We acknowledge that we still have a lot to learn and it’s a joy to keep uncovering exciting discoveries and continually improve.”
— Farmer Jesse
Core Values
MLJ Dairy is a “settler” in the community. As a settler we are committed to improving, preserving, and enhancing our home and land for present and future generations. Our vision is to continue as a profitable entity that is an integral part of a sustainable society.
MLJ Dairy aligns itself with God’s creation. We choose excellence, quality, and sustainability in every aspect of farming. We humbly ask the Lord for wisdom and insight on how to run the farm. Our vision is to serve people and honor Jesus in all we do.
MLJ Dairy is a conduit of blessing to all who interact with it. We rely on the Lord’s blessing to allow us to continue and carry on a generational spirit of generosity. Our vision is to support families through payroll, charity, and good food.
Family
We believe that working hard together as a family is a wonderful life. Jesse’s parents, Monte and Laura, who the farm is named after, still live on the farm and contribute with their wisdom and years of experience. Megan’s parents, Jim and Char, started the raw milk business in 2011, trained us, and then handed it over to us. They remain passionate promoters of raw milk and natural food. Our children are homeschooled and each have responsibilities caring for animals and growing food.
Nature
All of the babies that are born on our farm are cared for and fed by their mothers. Immediately after the baby calves are born they are licked by their mothers until they stand up and nurse the rich colostrum. The mothers raise their babies until weaning age when the calves are amazingly robust and healthy.
Organic
Since our ancestors pioneered here, we’ve farmed organically. The farm became officially certified organic in 1995. We believe that using chemicals on the soil might have a short term gain but causes long term, far reaching, and disastrous harm. In the same way, we believe that sustained health for our animals and plants comes from natural nutrition.
Rest
We milk our cows once a day. This rhythm gives us opportunity to sit down together as a family for meals, take one day to rest, and allows the cows plenty of time to lounge in the pasture.
Life on the Farm
Another peaceful morning on the farm
We milk our cows once a day. We start at 6:30, and we’re in for breakfast at 9:00. There’s a beautiful rhythm to milking every day: each cow has a name and a spot in line they like to stand in, every sunrise is met with gratitude and prayer, and every chore is done with intentionality and joy.
Cows are out on Pasture!
Happy Easter! This week we let the cows out on the pasture for the first time this spring! They are so happy to be eating fresh grass! This is always such a special occasion and fills the family with joy to see the cows high-tailing it around the fields. Our customers often tell us they can taste the difference in the milk with the new fresh green clover diet from their hay diet over the winter.
The Hay Harvest!
You can probably relate to the satisfaction of cutting hay if you’ve sat back and enjoyed the view of your freshly mowed lawn. It’s such a good feeling to be under the blue sky with the smell of freshly mowed grass and the security of knowing the cows are going to enjoy and be nourished by that hay all winter long. We thank God for His faithfulness to us in giving us satisfying work and the strength to do it!
Evironment
We believe that it is our farm’s duty, and in our best interest, to care for Creation. For generations we’ve protected our watershed, soil, bird life, insects, and wildlife by planting trees, keeping livestock away from creek banks and ditches, carefully storing and composting the animals’ manure, leaving large buffer areas around sensitive wildlife areas, and planting flowers and blooming fruit trees for bees.