| Farm Name | Working Cows Dairy | |
| Rating | (5)  |
|
|
|
||
| Location | Slocomb, AL | |
| Products | Whole raw milk, butter | |
| Market Area | AL, GA, and FL | |
| Web Site | http://www.workingcowsdairy.com/ | |
|
|
||
|
In
1985, we, Jan and Rinske de Jong, came to the land of opportunity with
a dream to start a dairy of our own. We started "Working Cows Dairy" in
October 1985. We milked 180 cows for a dairy farmer in Cottondale
Florida and for that we could use his barn and 40 acres. We leased 55
cows, with the $5,000 we had saved in Holland, and started milking
about 20 hours a day. In the spring of 1986 Jan planted watermelons on
part of the land and had a fruit stand on Hwy 231. We stayed on this
place for 2 years and left with 29 cows to a rented place in
Grand-Ridge Florida. There we had three boys Jonny, Mendy, and Ike. We
worked our way up from 29 cows to 220 cows four
years later.
We moved again to the place we are now located in June 1991. We do not homogenize our milk so the cream still comes to the top. We sell Whole, 2%, 1%, and Fat Free all in gallons and ½ gallons. We have ½ gallons of cream and chocolate milk too. Please visit our website for more information on our family farm. |
||
| Criteria | Points | Comments |
| Ownership Structure | 100 | Family Farm |
| Milk Supply | 100 | Single Farm |
| Disclosure of Information for Verification | 100 | Full and Open Disclosure |
| Certifier farms | 100 | CCOF |
| Certifier processing | 100 | CCOF |
| Cows on pasture time/acreage provided | 100 | Almost two acres per cow of pasture |
| Health and longevity of cows | 90 | Low |
| Replacement animals only from organic farms | 90 | Only organic animals (from birth) purchased |
| Antibiotics used on young cattle | 100 | Never |
| Reproductive hormones used | 100 | Never |
| Farm support oversight | 100 | Owner-operator |
| Outside dairy ingredients purchased | 100 | None |
| TOTAL SCORE | 1180 | FIVE COWS
(Outstanding) |