Homestead Dairy, LLC
Our Mission is to supply the highest quality agricultural products in a sustainable way, while creating a positive impact for the cows, business, and community.
In the Beginning
Striving to continue in keeping our humble beginnings, the home dairy with only nine cows was started in 1945 by owners Elmer and Lena Houin. Starting with meager beginnings, in 1979 Elmer's sons, Dan and Floyd, transformed the nine head dairy into a 110 head company named Homestead Dairy.
A Family Business
Alongside a stellar staff, Homestead Dairy is managed by the Houin Family still today. Bringing in the 4th generation, Brian Houin and Matt Houin joined the family business in 2003 and 2009, respectively, after graduating from Purdue University. Joel Gawronski has been with the dairy since 1999. Ryan Rogers is our newest family member, joining the dairy in 2012.
MOTTO: "WE, THE UNWILLING, LED BY THE UNQUALIFIED, HAVE BEEN DOING THE UNBELIEVABLE FOR SO LONG, WITH SO LITTLE, WE NOW ATTEMPT THE IMPOSSIBLE WITH NOTHING..."
NOT JUST A DAIRY ANYMORE!
Homestead Dairy is now in the energy business! As of October 2013, Homestead Dairy began transforming manure into electricity with a methane digester. The digester makes it's own energy by creating the gas that powers it's motors. This energy is then sold to a local power company.
AUTOMATED CALF FEEDERS
In 2015, the dairy built three new and technologically advanced calf barns. The barns technology allows the calves to feed throughout the day, and monitors the calves to ensure they consume enough milk to thrive. The calves now have the opportunity to live in groups and interact with each other and the feeding system.
HARVEST IS BUSY!
During the harvest season, farm employees are hard at work chopping and combining the acres of corn grown by the farm. The majority of the feed consumed by the herd is corn silage. To be most productive, we chop enough corn to make over 60,000 tons of corn silage at each harvest to feed our herd throughout the year.
Robotic Milking - Newest Technology on our family farm
In 2017, Homestead started milking with Lely Robotic Milkers. We currently have 36 robots milking cows when the cows want to be milked. The cows can go into the robots at anytime of day, get a snack, and get milked producing a wholesome nutritious product for you and your family.