When Stephanie and Hayley Painter were growing up in rural Pennsylvania, they didn’t think they had a unique lifestyle. Born and raised on an organic dairy farm in Tioga County, the pair grew up milking cows, feeding calves, running barefoot, working alongside siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins, and enjoying the rolling hills of the Northeast. 

The operation has grown to 400 Holstein cows milked with six robotic milking systems, as well as a new retail store where they also sell local products from their community. The farm has a beef community-supported agriculture (CSA) program and also provides hay wagon tours and farm tours throughout the spring and summer and four weeks of Kids Farm Camp.

It is not uncommon for the dairy checkoff to receive calls from entrepreneurs looking to innovate with dairy. This is why Dairy Management Inc. (DMI) created a tool that can help them navigate the resource waters and find the answers needed.

A community effort to bring local dairy processing to northeast Washington resulted in a stronger agricultural connection for local consumers.

After the Howelings stopped selling milk to a local processor, they turned to creating products made from raw milk such as lotions and soaps.

In its 10th season of being open, Purple Cow Winery began after Bruce Hemsarth’s kids, Andrew and Greg, moved away for a college education. Andrew Hemsarth says his father eventually “got this itch” which led to planting 800 vines and harvesting a whole lot of wine.

The robotic aspect of milking a grazing herd is much the same as in a traditional one, but the primary difference is sending cows out to pasture and ensuring they regularly return to the robot for milking. Optimizing this condition is key.

In the early 1900s, King Brothers Dairy in Schuylerville, New York, had on-farm processing, but ended in the 1960s due to stricter regulations for milk processing.

After 18 months of planning and preparation, Freshly Dairy began processing non-homogenized whole milk in two flavors – chocolate and traditional white milk – in August 2022 just west of Indianapolis in Lizton, Indiana.