Vlietstra Dairy Farm LLC

05/01/2026

It was heifer moving day! It may be a little cool weather wise today, but it was a great weather day to run up and down our hills!
This chore consists of moving age groups to a new area for their next phase of growing. A new group up to the long barn; a new group into the breeding pen; a new group coming out of the calf barn etc. We do this at least once every 6 weeks.

03/17/2026

We have been loading record pounds of loads of milk on the milk truck in this past week. Record for us anyway. We are averaging 93lbs of milk per cow, per day. Over 11 gallons a day per cow 😳 There are other farms who get more, but this is the highest we have ever been. We are very excited! The cows are clearly very happy and healthy. God continues to bless this farm!

01/27/2026

We had some heifers go on a field trip today-to the field ironically enough. They were a 1/2mile from where they originally started! We all got our steps in bringing them back.

01/14/2026

Hauling manure, playing chicken. 🐔

11/29/2025

Here is a clip of feeding heifers. Feeding the herd happens every day and it takes about 5-6 hours. Each group of cows/heifers-which is about 7 or 8-have their own specific mix of feed. Different amounts of corn silage, haylage, snapledge, soybean meal, supplements, etc. are in each batch of feed. These mixes are regulated by a cattle feed nutritionist and calculated carefully. Fred mixes each load and brings it to the intended group. It’s very scientific with lots of math and measuring.

11/27/2025

Happy Thanksgiving! What a blessing to have a day devoted to being grateful. What a blessing to have a Heavenly Savior who cares for our every need-no matter how small. We have SO much to be thankful for!

08/28/2025

“Take me home, to the place I belong…”

Farming isn’t just “a job.” It’s a way of life. We love our calling to be farmers. Beautiful evenings like yesterday’s really help us appreciate that fact.

PC Abby Martin

05/16/2025

If you are in the vicinity of West Michigan, you know that we had quite some weather last night. We had some shoveling to do this morning that we weren’t exactly planning on. But we are blessed! No one was hurt. All the cows are fine. And their beds are all cleaned out and dry now. Another farm hand and I have earned ourselves two bowls of ice cream tonight!

04/04/2025

02/14/2025

It’s gonna be frozen fountain season again next week. We are taking donations of hand warmers and hot chocolate deliveries. 😛😆Any volunteers who want to sit by the fountains and hold hair dryers on them all night are welcome too.