Meet Michigan Dairy Farmer Ashley Messing-Kennedy
Fifty years later, I’m not sure if they guessed it would mean as much to me as it does. In 1962 my grandparents bought our family farm and moved with their baby into the house my family now calls home.
Fast forward 54 years and you have the farm my family and I own. My husband, Eric, and I live on the farm with our three-month-old daughter Calli. We love being parents and believe the farm is the best place to raise our daughter. I work on our farm with my parents, Greg and Shelly.
On our family farm we milk 240 cows in four robotic milking units. We raise all of our calves on the farm as well. Most of the feed we feed to our animals is grown on the 600 acres we own and rent. We also raise some crops to sell such as corn, wheat and, some years, dry beans or soybeans. This year we are planting corn for feed and corn to sell, wheat, hay and soybeans.
A love and passion for dairy farming runs deep in our family. Since I had my daughter in December I feel a whole new excitement for our family farm. Knowing my husband, my parents and I get watch our daughter grow up on the farm is amazing. Not many people can say we work the same business out grandparent and great grandparents have. I love that. I grew
up seeing my grandparents daily on the farm and I loved every minute of it. Family makes dairy farming a passion of ours.
I have always had a love for animals. Regardless of the animal, I love being around them and being a care taker of them. Being able to take care of cows is something in my blood. I don’t really know where it came from, but I suspect it started when I was a kid watching my dad treat a cow that had just calved. The care he took and the passion he had for the cow and calf has stuck with me through the years.
Our farm is full of memories and each day we make new ones. The farm is also full of hard work. I am so thrilled to continue sharing details into our farm over the next few months. I hope by the end of harvest season you will feel like a member of the family.
