Local dairy farm gets creative, finds way to stay afloat as farms disappear nationwide

By CAROLINE HECKER

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    GREENVILLE (KMOV) — Dairy farming is a way of life for the Turley family, who milk their 120 dairy cows twice a day, churning out more than 1,000 gallons of milk.

Rolling Lawns Farm is situated in Greenville, Illinois, about 45 minutes northeast of St. Louis. The farm’s history dates back more than a century, with Michael Turley now at the forefront of the farm’s operations.

“I think the writing has been on the wall for small farms for a couple of decades,” Turley said.

For decades, the farm was driven by a commodity-based approach, selling their milk on the open market. But with the growing volatility and unpredictability of the market, the family was faced with a decision.

“I think we got serious about considering our future about 10 years ago when we looked at some business solutions we might be able to pursue,” Turley said.

Demand for milk has been declining for years and profit margins can be razor thin on a dairy farm. The most expensive cost, cattle feed, is non-negotiable, no matter how high grain and other commodity prices soar.

“It’s not something you can cut back,” he said. “Our dairy cows are on a very specific diet and they must eat.”

So, the family decided to pivot to a consumer-based approach and in 2018 the Turley’s opened The Milk House, a Grade A milk processing facility, along with a place where locals can stop in to buy a variety of milk and ice cream. Every morning and afternoon, the farm’s 120 dairy cows are milked, producing about 1,000 gallons of milk everyday. Within hours, the milk makes its way to the processing facility, where it is pasteurized and bottled by farm staff.

“What we’re doing is very risky because of the capital expense required to get into milk processing,” Turley said. “But the response from consumers in the greater St. Louis area has been unbelievable.”

“Where we’re headed, because we are bottling is to make milk more interesting and do it with flavors, fun flavors like orange cream or a cappuccino blend that people have never had that suddenly becomes their favorite,” he said.

While some of the milk remains on the shelves at the Milk House, the majority of it is loaded onto a refrigerated truck and taken to customers all around the St. Louis area. The Wolf Café in Ballwin has been a customer of Turley’s for about five years. Owner Bob Biriban said during a recent snow storm, customers noticed something….different.

“Because of the really bad weather, we actually ran out of Rolling Lawns whole milk for our coffee so we had to run to the store and get some generic milk to get us by and customers could tell a taste difference,” Biriban said. “Its just great milk, makes a beautiful latte, nice and creamy and customers notice a difference.”

Biriban said it’s important for him and his wife to support local farms and appreciate the quickness and freshness they receive through a local vendor like Turley. He estimates he orders around 30 gallons of milk a week from the farm.

“Sometimes the cows are milked in the morning and by late afternoon that same milk is in our refrigerator,” he said. “It’s incredible.”

Turley also makes weekly stops at Anthonino’s on The Hill, where co-owner Rosario Scarato uses heavy cream in the restaurant’s alfredo sauce.

“It makes our alfredo above and beyond incredible,” he said. “It’s creamy and often we’re using cream that came from the cow that morning. You just can’t get that anywhere.”

Turley also makes deliveries to a variety of other coffee houses and restaurants in the area, as well as the Fresh Thyme at the City Foundry, where his products are sold.

“We never have to worry about a delivery, a distribution center, we call them directly and sometimes in a snow scare and things like that when we might not be able to get other products, our local vendors really step up and help us,” Jane Wilcox, store manager, said.

Turley said while the consumer-based approach has proved successful so far, his direct tie to so many small businesses during the pandemic created a lot of uncertainty.

“There’s a direct correlation between what they were able to do business wise and what they needed from us,” he said. “So in a way it was very challenging much like it was for the restaurants, they didn’t need as much dairy.”

With restaurants opening back up and no shortage of customers, Turley said business has picked back up, allowing him to continue his family’s tradition and legacy.

Across the U.S., dairy farmers have faced hardship and struggle as large dairy operations saturate the market with product, driving down prices to below that of production. The USDA estimates a 55 percent decrease in dairy farms between 2002 and 2019.

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