Bottom row L to R: Danielle Penney Stroop – NE Agribusiness & Feed Alliance/award sponsor, Rebecca King, Carolyn King, Edgar King, Pandora Davis, Rick Zimmerman – NE Agribusiness & Feed Alliance/award sponsor. Top row L to R: Jeff King, Jan King.
NEAFA would like to congratulate King Brothers Dairy on receiving the Business of the Year Award at the 2020 New York Agricultural Society Annual Forum on January 9th in Syracuse, NY. The award, which is co-sponsored this year by NEAFA and Gold Star Feed and Grain, recognizes both a producer and an agribusiness for the quality, leadership and innovation they demonstrate that enhances the integrity of the agricultural industry. “I think both my brother Jeff and I would echo similar things about this award,” said Jan King of King Brothers Dairy. “The New York Agricultural Society brings all different types of agriculture together in one spot in the state, and to be recognized by your peers is humbling. We all work really hard every day in this industry. We certainly know that receiving this award wouldn’t have happened without the great people that work with us. From those on the farm, in the creamery, the office, our delivery drivers, and the retail store - everyone plays an important role. It’s a really great honor to be recognized, we feel really blessed.”
King Brothers Dairy is run by brothers Jeff and Jan King, the fourth generation to take the helm of the 120-year-old Kings-Ransom Farm located in Schuylerville, NY. “We farm here on both sides of the Hudson river, and milk about 1,000 registered Holsteins,” said Jan King. “In 2010 Jeff and I restarted the creamery after it took a 50-year vacation,” laughed King. “Our grandfather and uncles bottled milk at the farm starting in the early 1900’s to the 1960’s. The farm continued after that on a commercial level, but the idea of bottling milk again was always kind of a nostalgic thing. There were old glass milk bottles in wooden crates in the back of one the barns, and every time we saw them, we’d think wouldn’t it be great to do that again. So, we started selling in the Saratoga region with home delivery, and within four to five years it grew into restaurants, convenience stores and other outlets. By 2016 we had completed a new creamery on the farm where we can bottle milk in plastic & glass. It felt right to bring everything back in house.”
King has found that restarting the creamery has created a close connection to his customers. “The people that are purchasing your product, they enjoy the connection of knowing where it comes from and is produced,” said King. “There’s a lot of work that goes into producing milk, and we’re able to take a high quality product that we produce here on the farm, put it into a glass bottle or jug and get it into the hands of local people. Enjoying that quality and getting to see the connection with a neighbor, I think it’s a reason why people keep coming back time and time again.”
The most recent addition to King Brothers Dairy is their retail space. “About a year ago we opened a 3,000 square foot retail space on the farm,” said King. “We feature our milk and cream products and started making 35 flavors of hard ice cream. We have a really neat shopping experience for our customers - they can come into the store, visit the ice cream counter and check out our coolers filled with milk products and local products. We also have a place to sit down if you’re so inclined. People are even able to look through viewing windows into the creamery. It’s a pretty cool farm experience, especially for those removed from agriculture. They can gain a connection to our great tasting dairy products and the farm where they come from. Getting to see where these products are processed and have a little bit better understanding of how that works is something a lot of people value.”
While the business has grown recently, it’s still very much a family run farm. “We are a family business, not a big corporation, from top to bottom,” said King. “The business is run by Jeff and me, along with a lot of help from our wives. Jeff’s wife Becky oversees retail, marketing and social media. My wife, Pandora, is on the farm. She’s a large animal veterinarian that specializes in food animals. She helps with a lot of the animal care and veterinarian responsibilities. For the day to day operations, Jeff is responsible for the cows and we are a 100% registered Holstein herd. We’re very involved in that area of the business. We have an extensive breeding and genetic marketing program throughout the US and the world. I’m responsible for the crops, creamery and the sales from there, and we share all the other parts. We have herd managers and crop workers that take care of a lot of those responsibilities as well. There’s a lot of crossover that happens of course. Jeff and Becky do a lot of the financial portions of the book work as well. As we keep growing, we keep looking for people to be a bit more specialized in marketing and communications, and we have a lot of talented folks. If we can’t produce a higher quality product that tastes better, we don’t want to do it. Last summer we exceeded our expectation with selling ice cream at our new store. But we still need to make sure that our feet are under us for whatever comes at us.”