At Creamery Creek, our heifers head up to Big Creek Farms, a peaceful, slower-paced farm five miles away where young cows grow up right. Here I want to share how that farm fits into our dairy system, how we’ve leaned on our longtime employee Big Nate for the past 24 years, and what’s next as we begin a new chapter (including a job opening!).
Not every fancy system works for every farm. At Creamery Creek, we tried raising our calves with robotic feeders, but came back to our roots with hutches and bottles. Here, I walk through why we made the switch, how we protect newborn calves with clean routines and colostrum, and why the simplest methods sometimes raise the healthiest cows.