The De Groot family shares their passion for dairy with the community

In honor of their dairy’s 20th anniversary, DJ and Johan de Groot opened their 2,000-acre farm to their local community. Anyone who wanted a hot breakfast and to tour the farm was welcome. While they hoped for a good turnout, the couple was amazed at the nearly 700 people who showed up to Sunshine Dairy in Andrews, Ind., eager to learn more about dairy farming.  

“We had several tractors going around the farm and people were able to go on little tours and see everything. It was cool to see how many people were there waiting in line to get onto a tractor to get a farm tour,” DJ says. “People were not just here for the free breakfast, but also here to learn about the cows and the farm. That was pretty amazing.” 

Having both been raised on farms, life on the dairy is second nature for the de Groots. But they understand the average American doesn’t have firsthand experience with where their food comes from. They see this as an opportunity to educate, and their farm is always open to those interested in learning more.  

“I don't think people always understand how much goes into getting your glass of milk. It starts with a little baby calf, and it goes all the way up to feeding the cows. Just like us, what goes into that cow matters, like how much she eats or how much she drinks,” DJ says.  

“People don't know a lot about the cows. They know that milk is coming from the cow most of the time but that's about it. They don't know anything else about the feed that we harvest ourselves to feed the herd and the equipment that we use to do it all. So, the turnout of people wanting to learn was impressive.” 

On top of opening their farm up to the public, the de Groots are working with a local food bank to donate milk to their community. The food bank purchases Kemps® milk (the brand the family’s milk goes into) from local grocery stores and the de Groots reimburse the purchases — this way the milk donated is from their own herd. With these donations, they hope to ensure everyone in their community has access to delicious and nutritious dairy.

The importance of milk and how it’s made is deeply rooted in Johan and DJ’s lives. They hope they can one day enrich their children’s, Hannah, 3; and Daniel, 20 months; lives with it, too.

“We both grew up on family farms and have been in the farm business all our lives, so it's really a goal of ours to pass it on to the next generation and make it suitable for them to be able to take it over whenever they are big enough and if they ever show interest, of course,” DJ says.

“That's really what we're building the farm for right now — to pass it on to the kids. I think that's an important part of how we grew up and that's why we want to give back to them,” she says.

From business strategies, like cross-breeding their dairy cows with Angus bulls — a breed primarily used for beef production — to high-tech innovations, like robotic milking systems that allow cows to milk on their own schedules, the de Groots are constantly looking for ways to improve their overall operation.

Preserving the land and their herd is important to them, in case their kids ever want to take over the farm, just as Johan did from his father.

“I want them to know the opportunity is there and I want to make sure they’re involved all along, so they understand it,” Johan says. “When I was little, I was always with my dad and as I got older, I took on more jobs at the farm and did everything every step of the way. I started feeding the cows on the weekends and maintenance work when we first started. I did all those things.”

Johan moved with his family to Indiana from Holland in 2002 and began working alongside his dad before solely taking over the farm in 2011. After marrying in 2018, DJ moved to the United States from Holland and began working with Johan on the farm as well.

Similarly to how he was raised, Johan enjoys getting his kids involved on the farm and seeing them take interest in the cows, even at such young ages.

“Right now, the calf barn is where you can kind of let them go. They can roam around while you work with the calves,” Johan says. “They enjoy sitting with me when we’re doing field work, like running the tractor. That kind of stuff Daniel is fine with, but Hannah usually gets bored after an hour of it.”

To preserve their operation for future generations, the de Groots blend their learnings from growing up on farms in Holland with the knowledge they’ve built over the years farming in the United States.

“Holland is very different; it's a lot of smaller farms, so I think Holland can learn a lot from America too,” DJ says.

Whether they are learning tricks of the trade from their families in Holland or their farming community in Indiana, the de Groots are constantly implementing new practices and technologies to advance their operation.

“There’s more technology in the industry now, but especially on our farm. Twenty years ago, when this farm started, it was just the milking parlor and they had some pedometers, but now everything's automated. We milk part of our cows with robots so that's a different technology as well and something new we started doing that last year,” DJ says.

“Also, there’s technology that we use to measure activity, so we can keep track of the cows’ health and their activity to see if they’re in heat, those are the little things that make sure that we have that record for every cow, so we can make decisions if something’s wrong, and we can check our accounts to make sure our cows are healthy.”

To the de Groots, the practices they use to improve their operation support their ultimate goal: a happy, healthy herd.

“I think those are important things for consumers to know and our community, too, so they see we're trying to do the best for our cows,” DJ says. “I just want to make sure that the cows are healthy and happy. They’re part of our life, while they are our revenue, they are also part of who we are as a family.”