The Creamery Creek Love Story: The Classified Ad That Changed Everything

Why is this a Love Story?

John and Donna Hansen were in their early 70s when Justin and I met them at Perkins. Donna had her granddaughter Anna with her, tucked into a bucket car seat. I had our second son, Jacob, also in a bucket car seat. My husband Justin and I were young dairy farmers with big dreams. John and Donna had a legacy farm dating back to 1932 and were looking for the right partners to carry it forward.

Before the Classified Ad

Justin and I met in 1999 at Michigan State University's Dairy Club. We were both dairy kids, both knew this life was what we wanted. We got married in 2005 and started building our future together. Justin worked as a herd manager, we had two boys (Joseph in 2006, Jacob in 2009), and we dreamed about finding our own place.

Here's what you need to know: you need land, facilities, infrastructure. You can't just start a farm from scratch without serious capital. So we started looking for a farm to rent, a partnership opportunity, something that would let us build equity while we proved ourselves.

In 2009, we placed a classified ad: "Looking for Dairy Farm to Rent, 200-300 sand bedded freestalls, parlor" and Justin's phone number. That was it. 

We searched for over a year. Justin visited farms all over Wisconsin. I had a newborn at home, and he was out there working and looking at facilities, meeting with families. Some places weren't the right size. Some partnerships didn't feel right. Some families weren't looking for what we were offering. We started to wonder if we'd find the fit we needed.

Then John Hansen called.

The Hansen Legacy

The farm John was calling about had a story. His parents, Rudy and Rose Hansen, bought it in 1932 with help from Rudy's parents. They started with ten dairy cows, a bull, three draft horses, and three mules. Dairy was the foundation, but they also raised pigs and chickens because that's what farming families did. You worked hard. You made it work.

In the 1940s, the John's brother Norb started raising Duroc pigs as a 4-H project. The breed stuck because Durocs were efficient, had large litters, and they helped pay the bills. Pigs were called "mortgage lifters" back then because when milk prices dropped, hog sales kept the farm afloat. Here's one of their family stories I love: they once sold 32 Duroc butcher hogs to buy a brand new 1947 Ford. It was the only new car the family ever owned.

John was the middle son. He pursued a career in meat and animal science, worked for the National Livestock and Meat Board, and traveled the country promoting the beef industry. But farming was always in his blood. In 1971, John and Donna came back to the farm and raised their five kids there. They improved the beef herd, showed champions at the county fair, and built a registered Holstein dairy operation that became known for quality.

By 2009, John and Donna were looking ahead. That's when they saw our ad.

The Leap of Faith

After that first Perkins meeting, we had a formal sit-down with the whole Hansen family. We brought our kids, Joseph was about three, Jacob was tiny, and the meeting was a little chaotic, even in my memory. But through the questions and the getting-to-know-you conversations, something clicked.

We moved to Bangor at the end of January 2010. We started farming February 1st. In April, we moved our own cows up from the farm where Justin had been herd manager (still friends with them, too). In June, just four months after we started, we hosted the La Crosse County Dairy Breakfast on the farm.

More than a thousand people showed up.

Looking back, I'm not sure if that was faith, insanity, or divine intervention. We barely knew the farm. We were still learning the systems, combining two herds, figuring out how to work together. Remarkably, we did it, and it worked.  John and Donna trusted us, and we trusted them, basically that's our secret to how we built something.

What It Became

Fifteen years later, John still comes to the farm to chat with Justin. They talk about cows, about the industry, about life. It's mentorship and friendship rolled into one, and it's one of my favorite parts of this partnership.

Our kids, Joseph is 19 now, Jacob is 16, Joshua is 14, and Johanna is 11, are growing up the same way generations of Hansen kids did. They feed calves, they do chores, they learn that animals deserve your best effort and good work matters. They're building the same  the same values, the same love for this life that kept the Hansen farm going since 1932.

The partnership is more than business arrangement. It's a blending of families, of histories, of values. We still milk registered Holsteins. We kept the Duroc pigs because of that heritage.  We added pasture-raised beef and opened our online farm store so we could sell directly to people who care where their food comes from. Every decision we make honors what the Hansens built while moving it forward for the next generations.

The Love Story

So why am I calling this a love story?

Because love isn't just about romance. It's showing up. It's trusting someone enough to hand them your family's legacy. We're working through the hard days because we believe in what we're building together. It's two babies in bucket car seats at Perkins growing into teenagers who are still friends. It's John regularly at the farm at 80-something years old because he still cares, and Justin making time for those conversations because he values the wisdom.

When you buy beef or pork from Creamery Creek, you're not just getting meat. You're getting food raised by families who chose each other, who've invested 15 years in building trust, who care about legacy and quality and doing things right.

That's the love story. And we're honored you're part of it.

Come See Us

This June (June 20, Father's Day weekend), we're hosting the La Crosse County Dairy Breakfast again. It's been a few years, and we're ready to open the farm and let you see where your food comes from. Meet the kids, meet the Hansens, see the cows, and be part of this love story in person.

We'll share more details as it gets closer. For now, just know: you're always welcome here.
Thank you for trusting us with your family's meals. Thank you for caring enough to know your farmers.

And thank you for being part of the Creamery Creek love story.

XOXO, 

Louisa