Croes Udder Dairy to host Farm-City Day August 12

CROES UDDER DAIRY will be the 41st hosts of the annual Farm-City Day in St. Croix County. Pictured from left to right are, Jerry Croes, holding granddaughter Chloe, Charlotte Croes, Miranda and Jeff Croes, and their daughter Gwen. —photo submitted

The 41st annual Farm-City Day will be hosted by Croes Udder Dairy of Deer Park on Saturday, August 12 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. This event is sponsored by St. Croix County farmers and businesses. Attendees can look forward to a free lunch, farm tours, a petting barnyard, Farm machinery displays and several other exhibits and displays. 

The event will take place rain or shine and parking will be at 1910 220th Ave. in Deer Park.

Croes Udder Dairy LLC ( C.U.D.) is a family dairy arm located just outside of Deer Park, currently owned and operated by the father and son team of Gerald (Jerry) and Jeff Croes. They milk about 80 cows and raise all of their own heifers to become future milking cows at C.U.D. with a total of around 150 animals on the farmstead. C.U.D. sits at a second farm that Jerry and his wife Charlotte purchased in the 1990s. The original farm started out just next door to the current facility. Jerry and Char purchased the original milking barn and land from Jerry’s Father in the 1970s. Jerry’s father, Lawrence, purchased the farm as a second farm to expand his operation. When Jerry and Char purchased from Lawrence, J & C Croes farm was created, milking 40 cows in a stanchion barn. As time went on, the neighboring farm came up for sale, with sharing property lines, they purchased the second farm with intent to expand their cropland part of the operation. With a good working barn on the second farm and Jerry and Char milking more cows than they had stalls for in their original barn, the decision was made to start milking in the second barn, which began being called the Other (Udder) Farm.

After high school, Jeff studied for two years at UW-Madison in the Farm and Industry Short Course (FISC) program, a program designed for Farm youth to continue their education and fast track some of the studies and not be a full 4-year program with it only going from November to March. Upon graduating from UW Madison FISC, Jeff returned home and moved into the second farm and took over the milking operation there. 

In 2004 the decision was made to consolidate the two stanchion barns into a more modern facility all under one roof with no intention of becoming a larger operation, simply combine the two herds and create a safer, healthier environment for both the farmers and the animals. Croes Udder Dairy was born.

With the Cows moving to the second farm. the original farmstead that Jerry bought from his father became the base for J-C Croes Farm LLC, which took over the crops side of the operation running just under 600 tillable acres, while C.U.D. was the milking side. Both operations are owned and operated by Jerry and Jeff with some seasonal help to get crops in, and milking help for some milkings. But most of the work is done by Jerry, Char and Jeff. Their 80 cow herd has a 25,500 pound rolling herd average with the cows being milked twice a day. That equates to an average of 83.5 lbs of milk from each cow a day.

Farming has been the family’s livelihood for generations. Gerald and Charlotte are both 4th generation American farmers from when their families came to America. The original Croes farm was in the Highland Park area of St Paul, MN then moved to Hazelwood in White Bear Township, MN. Lawerence purchased land in Deer Park in 1950 and members of the Croes Family have been farming the land to date, with Jeff and Miranda’s children hopefully one day being the 6th generation to farm.