Rinske de Jong works on the farm with her husband, two of her sons and daughter in-law, but her farming roots go back to her home country.
“My husband was a dairy farmer in Holland already, in the Netherlands and we moved to America in 1985,” said de Jong. “We started milking cows, and little by little, that’s what I stuck with.”
While some day to day operations are different for dairy farmers compared to crop farmers, their day still starts at the crack of dawn.
“By six o clock, I am outside getting the cows up to get milked. First, I check the cows if they had babies or have problems. Then I go on to milk the cows,” said de Jong. “When I am done with that, milk is being pumped to be pasteurized. When I am ready, we can pump it over here to the cheese room.”
Cheese is the biggest export of Working Cows Dairy. A few of the flavors made have won Good Food Awards as well.
For a family dairy farm, the production amount is astounding.
“At the moment, because the grass is so green, so this is the healthiest cheese to raise. I make three batches of cheese in a week, so that would be 1,050 pounds of cheese,” said “On top of that, we also make a lot of homemade butter. 500 boxes, that’s 250 pounds of butter every other week.”
While the farm produces organic products from grass-fed cows and is Animal Welfare Approved, de Jong is most proud of the fact that she gets to do this with her family.
Working Cows has a self serve store on site at their location. The address for the farm is 5539 N AL Hwy 103 in Slocomb.