For generations, the Schoenbergs have been honing what it means to be a family-owned dairy farm success in Minnesota. Not far outside the town of Melrose, Stony Creek Dairy produces and sells high-quality products.
Grant Schoenberg, owner and self-proclaimed country boy at heart, attributes his company’s success to passion that has been passed on from one generation to the next since the late 1800s. He runs the 475-acre farm with his wife, Cassie. They live on the farm with their three young children.
“We have a lot of passion for what we do, and I think that’s why we’ve been successful,” he says. “It’s part of our heritage and way of life.”
Stony Creek Dairy has its own premium dairy retail brand of sorts, boasting a variety of milk, cream and butter. The farm, which also raises and sells livestock meat, uses a vat pasteurization method for its milk, which is heated at a lower temperature for a long period of time, allowing the milk to retain a natural, full-bodied flavor.
“It brings out the flavor of milk, and gives it a nice, clean, creamy taste,” Schoenberg says.
Milk and livestock are produced without growth hormones. The Schoenbergs believe that’s better for consumer health and puts less stress on the cows. Animals are nourished with a feed rich in omega-3 to help produce the high- quality milk. Livestock eat alfalfa, corn and grass-hay, all grown and harvested on the family’s farm.
Schoenberg hopes his children – now the seventh generation on the farm – will continue the family tradition. He will encourage them to follow their passions, he says, wherever those may take them – even if away from Stony Creek.
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