Troy DeRosier grew up on a dairy farm. Farming’s all he ever wanted to do. Troy and his wife, Barbara, run Crystal Ball Farms in Osceola, a small village on the banks of the St. Croix River in northwestern Wisconsin. Troy’s family had never really used chemicals for farming to begin with, so making the switch to becoming a completely organic dairy made perfect sense. 

As Milo Bontrager sees it, chickens are a lot like people: every one is unique. Milo keeps a watchful eye over his flocks as they roam around outside on his organic farms in northeast Wisconsin.

Dean Dickel didn't set out to be an egg farmer. Years ago, he was growing conventional grains in Iowa, when something funny started to happen. He and his family started feeling poorly. A lot of farmers would shrug it off. Not Dean. He wondered if the chemicals he used might be making his family sick. That’s when Dean stopped using toxic pesticides and fertilizers and made a commitment to use organic practices.

James Baerwolf and his brother, Rob, learned the dairying business growing up on the dairy farm their parents operated north of Madison. The brothers are farming land their grandfather started farming in the mid-1940s. 

The idea for Sugar River Dairy came to Ron Paris after attending a dairy conference in 1999. He lived in an area of the state with a rich dairy history, but he couldn’t think of anyone who was making yogurt. So he decided he would. 

It all started with a couple of hens. Lynn Lein’s children brought them home and the family built a fancy coop for the hens. It was finished inside and had curtains, so it would look nice. Lein’s children are now grown and Yuppie Hill Poultry, her farm in rural Walworth County, continues to grow.