In 2016, two generations of the Jennissen family who own and operate Jer-Lindy Farms, LLC, and Redhead Creamery, LLC, in Brooten, Minn., were recognized with the U.S. Dairy Sustainability Award.
The family was recognized for its sustainable commitment in various corners of their businesses, including reducing its energy use by 20%, only using manure to fertilize its 258 acres and feeding leftover whey from their on-site cheese processing operation back to their herd.
Since 1983, Jerry and Linda Jennissen have owned and operated Jer-Lindy Farms. A decade ago, their daughter, Alise, came back to the farm to raise her family and opened the Redhead Creamery in 2013. Today, Alise, and her husband, Lucas, along with her parents are partners in both businesses.
Linda Jennissen shared when receiving this award in 2016 that the family struggled with really understanding what sustainability meant.
“One day you think you’ve got yourself set up for long-term success for the business, environment and your employees. But the world keeps changing, and you need to adjust,” Jennissen says.
Today various construction is happening on both sides of the businesses. The dairy is putting in mattresses, adding a robotic feed pusher and a robotic manure pusher.
“We’re really excited but also nervous about the future,” Sjostrom says, announcing Jer-Lindy cows will be milked robotically by fall with the help of four used DeLaval robots.
The reason behind the change to automation at Jer-Lindy Farms boils down to labor.
“We need flexibility,” he says, sharing that the family is also anticipating having to manage a lot more data in the future. Along with all the automation, the farm added Cow Manager activity ear tags in 2020.
Sjostrom shares that when it comes to postings job openings for both the creamery and the farm, the creamery always spurs more interest in potential applicants. Many of their workers work at both businesses, as the 200-cow dairy has a difficult time coming up with an 8-hour shift.
Initially, the family’s vision of having an on-farm cheese processing facility included visitors to watch the cheese-making process. They added three five-foot wide viewing windows to accommodate that. Sjostrom shares that they now understand that visitors want to see the cows more than the cheese-making process.
“We want to be able to transfer from our current tour setup to one that focuses on the farm and ends up with a glass of non-homogenized, pasteurized whole milk,” he shares, adding that the sky is the limit for other ideas to Redhead Creamery, including a cheese tasting class.
Simultaneous expansion plans are occurring over at the creamery that will allow them to expand the overall size of their building by threefold, including their cheese aging space. Sjostrom shares they are planning to add a restaurant and whey distillery within the expansion, too.
Cheat Code
The family encourages producers to do their homework and tour other farms and businesses before implementing changes on their farm.
“Our cheat code has been asking around and looking as much as possible,” he says. “Our cheese plant is designed the way it is because we looked at over 50 milk processing facilities. We were able to see a lot of people’s mistakes and a lot of people’s triumphs.”
Adding the whey-based distillery is in the works and again, the Sjostrom’s have hit the ground running, touring more than 140 distilleries to figure out what would work best for their farm.
Purchasing used robots is what the family believes makes the best sense to them and is the most sustainable avenue for them to pursue.
“I’ll have to tell you five or 10 years from now if it was the right decision, but so far it looks the best on paper,” he says.
Sjostrom adds that another equation to sustainability that they have found is diving into grants available to help push their business to the next level.
One piece of advice they learned along the way that has stuck with them is to charge for farm tours.
“I felt sick about charging people initially for farm tours,” he says. “But when you’re selling a product like a farm tour or distillery tour or cheese tour, you put a lot of work into it. The tour is very important to our mission but is also important in terms of revenue.”
