History
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Jones Dairy Farm
History
Jones Dairy Farm was purchased by Orville and Zedda Jones in 1919. His family farmed it until the mid 1930’s,
when they returned to there other farm near Royal
Center, IN. In 1942 Orville’s son Roy and his new
wife Helen moved to the Star
City farm. They began farming full time with
horses. They also had milk cows,
hogs, and chickens like most farms at that time.
Roy was an early adopter of
technology such as tractors, balers, and a mounted picker. In 1956 Roy, his Father, and Brothers
built a milking parlor. It was a
double 3 with bypass stalls.
Previously Roy milked in a
stanchion barn that was built in 1908.
Roy was also known for doing
custom baling in the area. As time
progressed the farm saw many changes such as the transition to a primarily dairy
operation, larger equipment, the addition of a free stall barn and concrete lot
for the milking herd, 2 upright staved silos, and a Harvestor. Many young men in the community worked
for Roy either as a hired hand or
just helping to bale hay and straw during the summer.
In 1974, Roy’s son Sammy
began his full time status on the dairy operation. The partnership of Roy and Sammy’s young
family continued the development of the operation with the addition of more farm
ground and more cattle. Roy and
Sammy continued with adapting technology by providing the parlor with an upgrade
in 1989 and the addition of a computer feeding system to provide each cow with
the proper amount of feed for her production.
During the mid 1990’s, Roy
began his transition to retirement. This as with most farmers, he still
played a role in the operation running equipment and providing advice for the
younger generations. Sammy’s son
Joshua began full time at the dairy after graduating from Purdue in 2003. This makes Jones Dairy Farm a 4th
generation farm.
On February 28 2003, Jones Dairy Farm became the first dairy farm in the
state of Indiana and the
10th operation in the nation to use a Robotic milking parlor. This allowed the operation to maintain
its reasonable size yet provide the freedom not normally associated with a dairy
operation. The Jones family began
giving tours of the operation to help educate the public about their food supply
and the technology behind it.
People from all over the U.S.A and from several countries have toured the
operation. Then in April of 2009
the robotic milkers were upgraded to the current ones operating
today.
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