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Dairy farmer diversifies to maintain profitability

Diversifying the dairy operation is an Illinois farmer’s plan to maintain profitability.

“As most folks know, the dairy industry is really struggling in terms of profitability and so for our farm, at our size, and a desire to stay small and focused on the registered Holstein cows, we’re looking for other avenues to generate a different type of revenue model that can be profitable.”

Michael Turley has 120 head of Holsteins in Bond County and recently began to vertically integrate.

“We built our own food grade manufacturing plant and so we take the milk from our farm and bottle that with our own brand, Rolling Lawns Farm, and then sell that to the greater St. Louis area, mostly food service, restaurants, coffee shops, ice cream and bakeries.”

He tells Brownfield adding a store to the farm and participating in learning opportunities like the manure management workshop are a few ways to keep them moving forward.

“This is just our solution, a plan that we think we can work to find that sustainable model for generations to come.”

Brownfield interviewed Turley at a manure management workshop in Centralia, Illinois as part of the Illinois Farm Bureau Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy.