DAGGETT -- They say in life you should love what you do. Terry and Tracy DeBacker are living proof of that.
Over the past two years, the DeBackers have built their family dairy farm from the ground up. They opened for business only a few weeks ago, and already their milk is selling out and they can't keep enough ice cream in the store.
But their plunge into the pool, known as the business world, didn't come without problems.
"Financing, with the way the dairy markets have been, people don't want to touch it, but we had somebody that had faith in us, and they really helped us through this process," says Tracy.
They risked it all, even with the unstable economy. And now twice a week, the DeBackers are bottling between 50 and 100 gallons of each of their four types of milk: whole, 2%, skim, and whole chocolate.
"We know if we can put a good product out there, people will buy it, and as far as the U.P. goes, they support U.P. business, and we knew this is something we could make work," Tracy adds.
The DeBacker dairy milks about 180 cows twice a day. The milk is then pumped from the milking parlor directly over to the plant where it's pasteurized and then bottled.
The operation is small-scale now, but if the market demand grows, so too will the farm. The dairy has the capacity to pasteurize 800 gallons at a time.
Their milk isn't homogenized, meaning it's healthier and more natural because your body can digest the cream and use the fat, which is in cream, for energy and the nutrients that your body needs.
"We take a lot of pride in our dairy opening, and I'm just here trying to give something back to the people of the U.P., you know some good, quality, dairy products," says Terry.
The DeBackers' products will soon be sold all over the U.P.
For a complete listing of where their milk is sold, you can go to their website.
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