Maggie's Farm Cows
Maggie and Sage on the Indiana Farm
Way back in about 2008 when we first started looking into acquiring some livestock, Gail said to Glenn one day (while visiting a local dairy farm), "Jerseys have such soulful eyes! We should get a cow!" Glenn, who grew up on a dairy farm, said, "And who's going to milk her twice a day, 365 days a year?" So Gail said, "Never mind."
Fast forward to when we first moved to Indiana from Ohio. In the summer of 2011, we entered into a herdshare contract for raw milk with a small raw milk dairy, Rose Hill Dairy. After several months, we had become good friends with the owner. She decided to sell one of her cows, named Sage, who wasn't giving enough for Rose Hill Dairy, but she gave about the perfect amount for the three of us.
For reasons that have been lost in the mists of time, (probably because it seemed like a good idea at the time and completely forgetting the conversation we'd had in 2008), we bought Sage in 2012, and our accidental dairy was begun.
It was the perfect situation, though, because Rose Hill Dairy no longer had to sell the cow and we had extra pasture and a need for the milk. And one cow wasn't too much to manage - we only milked her once a day and could miss a day here and there if we really needed to. Plus, she was dry for a couple months of the year.
Less than a year later Sage had a calf we named Buddy who we raised for meat. (Who was really tasty since we never managed to wean him off the milk.)
Fast forward to when we first moved to Indiana from Ohio. In the summer of 2011, we entered into a herdshare contract for raw milk with a small raw milk dairy, Rose Hill Dairy. After several months, we had become good friends with the owner. She decided to sell one of her cows, named Sage, who wasn't giving enough for Rose Hill Dairy, but she gave about the perfect amount for the three of us.
For reasons that have been lost in the mists of time, (probably because it seemed like a good idea at the time and completely forgetting the conversation we'd had in 2008), we bought Sage in 2012, and our accidental dairy was begun.
It was the perfect situation, though, because Rose Hill Dairy no longer had to sell the cow and we had extra pasture and a need for the milk. And one cow wasn't too much to manage - we only milked her once a day and could miss a day here and there if we really needed to. Plus, she was dry for a couple months of the year.
Less than a year later Sage had a calf we named Buddy who we raised for meat. (Who was really tasty since we never managed to wean him off the milk.)
Maggie with Rosemary
at their first fair in 2013
While Buddy was growing up, so was Maggie and she, who has always been a 4Her, decided she wanted to take a cow to the 2013 fair. So we got Maggie her own calf to show in 4-H. We named her Rosemary to keep with the herb theme.
Rosemary grew up and in 2015 had a calf of her own. We suddenly woke up to find ourselves a two cow dairy operation.
In 2017 Rose Hill Dairy stopped operation as the owners' lives went in a new direction, which meant selling all their cows and goats. (To see what happened with goats, see the Maggie's Farm Goats page, which adds a whole chapter to the saga of the accidental dairy.) Glenn never one to say no to a "good deal" and none of us able to say no to helping out a friend, we wound up buying several of Rose Hill Dairy's cows/calves to help them out ... which left us with having enough cows to milk to start our own dairy! We were milking 5 cows and 16 goats by the summer of 2018!
We had gotten the old Grade A milk parlor up and running again and now had quite a few cows and goats but were struggling with Indiana's dairy licensing process which is built around large dairy operations. That and other circumstances around the farm helped us make the decision in the spring of 2018 to move 1200 miles away. We had to sell several of our cows because we couldn't move them all. Read Maggie's story of our move here!
Now we're focusing more on the goats than the cows, but we still have a few and will be using their milk to make cheese once they come fresh. Our Accidental Dairy has become very intentional. But it still has a kind of nifty ring to it.
Rosemary grew up and in 2015 had a calf of her own. We suddenly woke up to find ourselves a two cow dairy operation.
In 2017 Rose Hill Dairy stopped operation as the owners' lives went in a new direction, which meant selling all their cows and goats. (To see what happened with goats, see the Maggie's Farm Goats page, which adds a whole chapter to the saga of the accidental dairy.) Glenn never one to say no to a "good deal" and none of us able to say no to helping out a friend, we wound up buying several of Rose Hill Dairy's cows/calves to help them out ... which left us with having enough cows to milk to start our own dairy! We were milking 5 cows and 16 goats by the summer of 2018!
We had gotten the old Grade A milk parlor up and running again and now had quite a few cows and goats but were struggling with Indiana's dairy licensing process which is built around large dairy operations. That and other circumstances around the farm helped us make the decision in the spring of 2018 to move 1200 miles away. We had to sell several of our cows because we couldn't move them all. Read Maggie's story of our move here!
Now we're focusing more on the goats than the cows, but we still have a few and will be using their milk to make cheese once they come fresh. Our Accidental Dairy has become very intentional. But it still has a kind of nifty ring to it.
The pictures below are from our farm in Indiana.
