Pennsylvania Dairy Farmer’s Love of Music Helped Him Get Over Selling His Cows
Two things have had a huge impact on Jeff Corle’s life—music and dairy cows. Growing up milking cows, at the age of 10, he was gifted his first guitar and started writing songs. His life took off from there. After high school, Corle headed south to Nashville, to pursue his dream of working in the music industry. Little did he know that he would return back to the old steel mill town and milk cows on his own.
In 2008, Corle started milking a small number of cows after being burnt out in the Nashville music scene. The idea of writing for other artists wasn’t his jam, so to speak.
The Pennsylvania dairy farmer headed back home and milked between 40 and 50 cows alongside his father for 12 years. The duo decided to transition to organic and continued until his father passed in 2018. Corle and his mother then decided to sell the herd and exit the dairy business.
However, with a strong inkling to try and make it on his own milking cows, Corle started something new and began bottling and selling his own milk. The herd size was what Corle calls a micro-dairy, a dozen Guernsey cows that would supply 14 local stores.
“Milking cows, processing the milk, bottling the milk and delivering the milk is a lot to do when you’re one person,” Corle shared. “I wasn't able to grow to the point that I could really have full-time help and also provide an income for me at a sustainable level.”
Corle continued anyways. That was until inflation hit the end of 2021 and early in 2022, Corle realized that all the profit was being eaten up. In the spring of 2022, Corle pulled the plug on his micro-dairy and sold his Guernsey cows.
“That business and those cows meant more to me than anything I had ever done in the dairy business,” he says. “Making the decision to shut it down and sell them was by far and away the most difficult thing I ever faced.”
The heartache and stress of selling his cows consumed Corle, as it was all he could think about. A music industry friend encouraged him to put those feelings into a song and even suggested the title, “Empty Barn.”
Soon after, the lyrics came to Corle in the middle of the night, and he wrote the song the next day. Corle shares he cried the whole way through writing the song, but notes it was, “very therapeutic.”
The song took off on his farm’s Facebook page and Corle was encouraged to make a full album, titled, “Farm Animal.” In May 2022, Corle headed back to Nashville to record it professionally.
“I learned in Nashville the best songs usually come fast and furious,” he says.
Corle received a lot of praise, especially from those who have experienced the true meaning behind of an empty barn.
“I always joke and say I only ever learned to do three things in life: play guitar, milk cows and drive truck and unfortunately only ever figured out how to make money at one of those things and it's not milking cows and it's not playing guitar,” he says.
Corle decided to re-record “Empty Barn” in Nashville and also took the liberty to create a music video that includes photos of dairy farmers across the U.S. The video now has over 121,000 views on YouTube.
The Pennsylvania dairy farmer is now working to release a full album as an independent artist. Corle is working to raise enough money to fundraise this effort that would help properly lift his music to the next level. A Kickstarter fundraising effort is available on his website at jeffcorlemusic.com.
Music and cows will always hold a special place in Corle’s heart. He shares that farmers are generally not ones to talk about their emotions.
“We kind of learned to grin and bear it,” he says. “If I hadn’t written ‘Empty Barn’ and experienced the healing through that, I probably would have stayed depressed. I lived it, and that’s why I’m so passionate about it.”
