Abiqua Acres

07/17/2025

The Ladies love the pasture in the evening after a hot day!

07/15/2025

Thank you all for the wonderful well wishes to my parents on their retirement! They have really been enjoying reading all the comments.
Had a few questions about the pictures included so I figured they deserved their own description because it’s all a part of our story!

Clockwise starting with the big picture:
*Retirement day! Pictured in our robotic facility where the herd has been milked since January 20th 2014. Coincidentally the cow to the right is Logo Butter - first cow to be milked in the robots as certified organic.
*Alan & Barbara were awarded the Outstanding Young Farmer award from the American Guernsey Association in 1987 one of 4 highest awards you can achieve.
*Alan milks Lorna on May 20, 1977 after additions and remodels to the milking parlor were finished, with double the milking stalls and a new milk tank. The fist side was completed in 1959 and the farmhas sold grade A milk since. This double 3 side opener is the same parlor we milked in until 2014.
* Darleen & Ben spent many hours in that same parlor. While we miss the hands on milking we love the flexibility robotics gives our young and busy family
* In 2012 Alan & Barbara were awarded the highest honor a Guernsey breeder can achieve with the Master Breeder Award. Our herd has always been focused on balanced moderate sized cows on good feet and legs for grazing. Our commercial herd focus also prioritizes production with longevity and health traits.
* The first generation of our dairy farm story Paul & Delores purchased the first registered Guernsey in 1952. Too many words could not sum up their love and involvement in the dairy industry.
* The most influential purchase to affect our herd came with one of Alan's first purchases in 1967 from Frances Hertel - a calf named Vanher Banker Snooks. This family has by far been one of his favorites, and this cow responsible for his favorite genetics lesson in what moderate sized cows are capable of. Countless offspring (I need to do a new count) and still going strong in our herd today. This family brought you the bulls Sputnik and Sergeant
* And finally (or maybe firstly) but not least raised with a love for dairy farming and the Guernsey cow, Alan Mann was the 1976 recipient of the National Outstanding Guernsey Youth Award from the American Guernsey Association. At the age of 21 he was already fully involved in the family farm and in fact had spent most of high school doing chores before and after school while his parents were away on trips. That means Alan has been awarded 3/4 of the highest honors from the AGA. That shows the level of commitment to the Guernsey throughout his entire dairy career.

Thank you to everyone who has been a part of our story! There are too many to list as there are so many great people in the Guernsey breed and dairy industry. The Guernsey future is bright here at Abiqua Acres because of these strong roots laid by the previous generations. 💛

07/13/2025

Help us in wishing my parents a very happy retirement!!!
Their commitment to the Guernsey breed can be seen around the world, with Abiqua Acres in many pedigrees today. Theirs is a dairy career that can be measured with influential impact. And we will appreciate their continued guidence and involement in the barn. We are excited for the future as we transition into a new chapter. Family farming is all about legacy and the love of the Guernsey cow has been at the root of all we do here at Abiqua Acres. We know how lucky we are to have a future for our Guernsey herd and are so thankful. Taking the reins with a deep appreciation for that first registered Guernsey from 1952 that still has offspring in our herd today. The brown and white cows that have shaped our past, present and future.
With love and a crazy amount of gratitude for all that has guided our path to today
Darleen & Ben

07/11/2025

It was great to catch up with our Guernsey family in Washington this week for National Guernsey Convention. If you are headed home through Oregon stop in for a visit. Safe Travels!

07/01/2025

03/28/2022

We let the Ladies out to pasture this weekend! Best day of Spring!

guernseydairymama • Original Audio

01/20/2022

Happy 5 years to robots milking the cows. And Happiest Birthday to Alan! 🥳

08/28/2021

This was a fun project to get to work on with O.P.B! Check it out, the video and article are in the link below!

Tech and food have gone together since our ancient ancestors made stone hand axes, and technological developments have been fundamental to the project of feeding humanity since the agricultural revolution millennia ago. Increasingly, automated systems — you might call them robots — are part of t...

04/08/2021

Our favorite time of year! Finally back out on pasture.

02/16/2021

Here’s a look at our current neighborhood views. Not sure we are real excited about having to go through another natural disaster just 5 months after the fires. But I guess we get to have a fire and ice story! Friday through Saturday we were hit with an ice storm that caused extensive damage in the Willamette Valley. All our structures and critters are fine, but it’s going to be a long road of clean up. Just hoping they can get power restored sooner then they are estimating.
Thinking of everyone across the country who are facing challenging winter weather. And appreciation sent to everyone who is working around the clock to try to get things back up and running!

11/24/2020

Appreciate this feature from Cowsmopolitan, although we’d skip the fires for the reason behind it. We definitely have so very much to be thankful for this year, as we were so lucky to not have to face the destruction that many did.

A feature article in our Fall issue, Abiqua Acres survived a close-up experience with the fierce fire season of 2020. Read more about this 100% registered Guernsey herd on Cowsmo ~ https://www.cowsmo.com/news/abiqua-acres-manns-guernsey-dairy/

10/12/2020

National Farmer Day and I realized I never really posted an update here after the fires! We are so thankful for these Fall views of blue sky and green grass. Definitely a crazy improvement from just a month ago.
~Darleen