Four generations of the Frerichs family have milked Jersey cows on this land outside La Grange, and the dairy has been running for something over a century. Around a hundred and thirty cows are milked twice a day, every day, which across the life of the farm adds up to more than fifty three thousand separate milkings and no days off. The family works roughly 740 acres of regenerative pasture for the dairy and beef herds, which in practice means grazing is rotated hard so the grass and the soil rebuild between passes rather than being run continuously into the ground. It is a working commercial dairy first, and everything else here is arranged around the milking schedule. Nothing here is staged for visitors, which is precisely the point of coming. What makes it a stop rather than simply a farm is that they open it up. A guided tour includes a tractor drawn hayride out to the dairy, a chance to hand milk a Jersey, and a walk through the milking parlour while it is actually running. Outside there are goats, chickens, rabbits, ducks and calves to feed, and a donkey, miniature horses, pigs and sheep to meet. Guided tours run at set times through the day and there is a self guided option as well. The Frerichs family are direct about why they bother with visitors at all. Almost nobody now has any occasion to see where milk comes from, and a gallon sitting in a grocery cooler gives away nothing whatsoever about the work behind it.
Getting there
29.9331, -96.8299
Locations are approximate and may be inaccurate, on private land, or otherwise inaccessible. Check before you travel.
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