American Dairy Farming: A Vital, Historic Institution, Now Harvesting Innovation
You may have noticed Natural Prairie Dairy celebrating National Dairy Month throughout June. Around here, we viewed it as a chance to reflect on our journey up to this point. My wife Cheri and I came to Texas over twenty-five years ago with a dream of owning our own dairy farm. We started humbly and were blessed with incredible growth. This isn’t just a job for us — it’s a passion. But why do we choose dairy farming as our way of life?
Dairy farming is a vital and historic institution in America. With about 60,000 dairy farms employing 500,000 people, it is the number one industry in over 10 states. Dairy farming is an amazing way of giving back to the land and to the communities that sustain us.
Cows are really miraculous animals — they are able to use land that humans couldn’t farm otherwise, and convert it into high-protein milk. A cow also reproduces multiple times and at the end of her natural lifespan we can consume that cow as well. It’s a sustainable circle of life that uses minimal carbon byproducts and feeds millions of people. Cows contribute to our health, our economy, and our Earth.
Dairy farming is about celebrating and cultivating the Earth. We’re using the resources that God has provided us to grow crops on this healthy organic land and feed our cows. As an employer in a small town, we invest in our employees and their families and in turn take care of our community. Cheri and I get an unbelievable amount of joy from our youth tutoring efforts, helping children learn about science, farming and more. We’re trying to help develop the next generations of great Americans, both as farmers and citizens.
As you know, Natural Prairie Dairy Farms is organic — meaning we don’t use any herbicides, pesticides, or antibiotics. This is a hard thing to do. In fact, many people told us it couldn’t be done at our scale. But we believe that farmers are the ultimate environmentalists and we have a duty to be responsible dairymen, to understand all the processes that go into producing quality milk.
Our future is firmly planted in organic production and we hope that our methods and philosophies can grow beyond our farms. We believe that innovation in farming drives innovation around the country, especially when it improves the environment.
My daughter Ashley told me recently that she eventually wants to come work on the family farm. Seeing one of my own go out into the world and then come back to Natural Prairie Dairy feels like a perfect culmination of everything we’re trying to accomplish. And when I think about what’s led me here, I always think of driving in every morning, seeing cows out in the field, and the smiling faces of my family and team members — you only get that kind of satisfaction on a dairy farm.
Donald De Jong serves as co-owner and chief executive officer for AgriVision Farm Management — a company that oversees management for 25 family-operated agricultural businesses. He is also the president and co-owner for Natural Prairie Dairy, one of the largest, family-operated organic dairy farms in the U.S. based in Hartley, Texas. Natural Prairie Dairy’s mission is to deliver best-in-class organic milk from their family to yours.
