Erickson Farms

Erickson Farms 5th generation family farm: A2A2 raw milk, crop farming, organically grown microgreens, & more

When you leave the fly tape within reach of the calves... 🫣 Mr Man (aka Rainer) on the left, Rosco on the right
09/23/2025

When you leave the fly tape within reach of the calves... 🫣 Mr Man (aka Rainer) on the left, Rosco on the right

We're heartbroken to share that last Monday, we lost four sweet members of our herd: Bjorn, Reba, June, and Josie.Rumen ...
06/30/2025

We're heartbroken to share that last Monday, we lost four sweet members of our herd: Bjorn, Reba, June, and Josie.

Rumen acidosis is something that I've always been hyper aware of because I know just how deadly it is for animals. Feed has always been in a separate barn stall, locked up, and monitored by our cameras.

When the storm blew the calves building away and their fencing came down, the calves must have eaten corn from the box that got destroyed. I, of course, didn't know this at the time. Everything was a mess, knocked down, and tipped over, so a broken box of corn didn't look out of place. We don't know exactly when the building blew away and they escaped their pasture, but the storm started about 11:30pm and we had the calves fenced back in by 3am when things calmed down enough to go outside. So sometime between when the building blew away and 3am these four snuck enough grain to cause acidosis. Since our cows don't get a lot of grain anyways, their bodies weren't used to the large amounts of it.

Everything seemed perfectly normal on Sunday, but by Monday night, everyone was gone. Even with a long visit from the emergency vet and around the clock care from me, nothing was enough to save them.

If you know Seth and I, then you know that our cows are our babies. We love them with our whole hearts, and they are like family to us. To say that we're devastated to lose what was supposed to be our next generation of cows would be an understatement. We take being good stewards of God's animals and land seriously, and I was grateful to be there for their first breaths and their last.

So why are we sharing this? Because honestly, it's been hard to fake a smile while hearing everyone say, "But at least all of the animals are okay!". It's hard to share this. I prayed about sharing or not. But their lives deserve to be acknowledged and remembered and not swept under the rug like nothing happened. Let us never take for granted what a gift these animals are for all that they provide for us.

Our four babies are buried here at the farm right where they belong, and once the mess from the storm is finally cleaned up, we will be planting trees in their honor.

Now that I'm past the shock of everything that happened, I can finally share an update on how the farm is doing after th...
06/22/2025

Now that I'm past the shock of everything that happened, I can finally share an update on how the farm is doing after the powerful storm. Thank you so much to all of those that reached out to check on us - I figured sharing this way would be easiest as I don't have great reception without wifi.

I'll start off by saying that most importantly, by God's grace, all of our animals are safe and unharmed. We were able to get everyone sheltered and hunkered down before the storm began. Our entire calf building got picked up and blown into our tree belt, so it's truly a miracle that all of our calves/yearlings are still alive. The feeling of sitting in the basement; unable to see or hear anything going on outside and just praying that my animals are alive and safe is something I never want to experience again.

All in all, our farm and crops experienced an incredible amount of destruction from the 115mph winds. Pictures don't quite grasp the amount of damage there is. We are so thankful that we still have running water and a generator to help keep most things powered on the farm.

We're tired. The cows are tired. There's an unexplainable sense of calmness covering the farm today as we slow down and take in what we need to do next. The logistics of the farm will have to be different moving forward due to the losses, and it will take us weeks to clean up the damage. But like I said, everyone is safe, and that is truly what's carrying me forward through this.

Others were not so lucky. Loss of livestock, pets, their homes, their lives. You see things like this happen on the news, but until it happens to the good and hardworking people of your community, you can't quite grasp the impact of it. I ask that you pray hard for those impacted in the affected communities, the crews working long hours to restore power and water, and the police and first responders supporting the community.

Everyone, meet Rosco!Rita had the 10th calf here at Erickson Farms on Monday evening around 6pm. She calved unassisted, ...
06/15/2025

Everyone, meet Rosco!

Rita had the 10th calf here at Erickson Farms on Monday evening around 6pm. She calved unassisted, as I was on my way home from milk pick up 😆 and her and baby bonded instantly! Rita has been a great mother, and both her and Rosco have gotten into their new groove of daily life. Another answered prayer for a safe mom and baby.

We firmly believe in allowing our mama cows to raise their babies. We believe in God's perfect design, and we value the gift of life over profit margins. So Rosco will stay with mom for as long as possible. Our goal is always 3 months - sometimes we're able to go even longer (our longest has been 5 months!) and sometimes we have to cut it shorter (if issues such as injured teats or the baby is trying to drink off of everyone in the herd 🙃).

Since Rosco is a bull calf, we will raise him up to enter our beef program just like all of our bull calves do. In the meantime, he gets to enjoy endless milk from mom, lots of harassment (aka pets and kisses) from me, and beautiful grass to live on. I gave me 13 year old goddaughter a list of the names that were submitted, and Rosco was the one she chose!

Swipe to the end to see Rosco wearing the collar of shame 😂 For the first 3-4 days that the calves are on pasture, they wear a GPS collar so that we know where they're at at all times. This helps us ensure they they're safe and helps us locate the calves when they inevitably wander under the fence to go lay in the long grass in the woods. After those 3-4 days, the calves are usually coherent enough to know their surroundings and find mom when they need to.

There's no such thing as restful Sundays when you have livestock 🫣Today, we spent the afternoon having the hoof trimmer ...
06/02/2025

There's no such thing as restful Sundays when you have livestock 🫣

Today, we spent the afternoon having the hoof trimmer get all of our girls' feet shaped up!

Even with having lots of awesome pastures to roam, it's good herd stewardship to get your cows hooves trimmed once or twice a year. Regular hoof trimming allows you to keep tabs on the general foot health of your herd (we got an A+!), check for injuries, and it helps keep the hoof in balance to avoid future injuries/arthritis/etc. This process is painless to the cows - it's just like cutting your nails!

This is one of the many tools we utilize on the farm to help us focus on the health, comfort, and longevity of the girls that provide so much for us.

Raina Mae (pictured) got the award for being the calmest and most cooperative.
Ruth Ann is grounded until further notice for being the biggest pain in the rear - but there's no surprise there 😂

I had to make a quick trip to the vet this morning with Baby.She had a lump on her chin that I noticed late last week. I...
05/31/2025

I had to make a quick trip to the vet this morning with Baby.

She had a lump on her chin that I noticed late last week. I was hoping she'd be fine until our herd health check in mid-June, but I could tell the lump was growing. I suspected an abscess, which I have never treated before myself. My rule of thumb is for something new I like to watch a vet first, and then I can feel confident to do it myself 💪 So off to the vet we went!

Thanks to Kris and Dr Weyer at for getting our girl taken care of! A drain and flush and we were on our way back home.

Baby will get some wound salve and red light as she heals over the next few days. Don't worry, this injury has, in fact, not changed her drama or sass one bit 🙄

Just a hungry queen (Raven) absolutely demolishing an alfalfa bale in the middle of the driveway 🙃🙄 as if they don't hav...
02/18/2025

Just a hungry queen (Raven) absolutely demolishing an alfalfa bale in the middle of the driveway 🙃🙄 as if they don't have an identical bale in both of their bale feeders.

It's been *a week* and it's only Tuesday.A huge thank you to Dr. Galbreath and the team at for seeing us last minute an...
02/05/2025

It's been *a week* and it's only Tuesday.

A huge thank you to Dr. Galbreath and the team at for seeing us last minute and taking such good care of our girl, Ruby, after she sustained a teat injury sometime during the night last night. She'll be sore for a while, but she should be okay! TLC and stall rest is in order, which Ruby was happy to hear. She loves receiving the special treatment!

On a positive note, while we had Ruby at the vet, we decided to do a pregnancy check on her, and we're excited to share that SHE'S PREGNANT and expecting a baby in early August!

We're heartbroken to share that this morning, Rosie gave birth to a stillborn calf.It was a perfect little heifer calf w...
02/04/2025

We're heartbroken to share that this morning, Rosie gave birth to a stillborn calf.

It was a perfect little heifer calf whom we decided to name Jasmine. This was Rosie's first baby. She was our first calf that we had bred for ourselves, and she would've been the newest registered girl to join our herd.

We believe that the calf most likely passed due to a premature placenta detachment, which cut off oxygen to the calf in the womb. The calf was also malpositioned at birth, which meant that Rosie needed some help getting her baby out during a very tough labor. What may have caused the premature detachment, we won't know.

I'm thankful that we got to be there to support her from start to finish. We chose to leave Jasmine with her mom for as long as Rosie needs to process what has happened. We believe that animals have souls, and they need time to grieve just like we do. From what we've seen so far, Rosie will make a great mama again someday. We're grateful that the less-than-affectionate Rosie Lynn has allowed us to love on her during this time, and we hope that it's as comforting for her as it is for us.

This is the harsh, unfair reality of having livestock. Sometimes, even your best isn't enough. It's a humbling reminder for ALL these animals do for us, and what they deserve in return. As a farmer, dairyman, and someone who raises their own meat; death is something we're unfortunately very familiar with, and I continuously pray that we never get calloused to the ending of a precious life.

Thank you all for caring for our girls and always asking how they're doing. We make sure to tell them how much our costumers love them.

Psalm 50:10-11 (NIV)
"For every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine."

We are (im)patiently waiting for Rosie Lynn to have her baby!Rosie is a heifer, which means that she's a young cow who h...
01/29/2025

We are (im)patiently waiting for Rosie Lynn to have her baby!

Rosie is a heifer, which means that she's a young cow who hasn't had a calf yet. Since this is her first calf, it's always a little nerve-wracking to see how they'll handle labor.

But Rosie is tough - like so tough that you do NOT want to mess with her 😂 - so we have faith that she'll do just fine!

What do you think...will it be a bull or a heifer?! Let us know your guess aaand comment any name ideas that you have!

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Clifford, ND

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