Farm Store Now Open!

Good morning!  We are excited to announce that our farm store is now open!

Fun fact about our family - we are now the 4th raw milk dairy in operation in my wife’s family!

1) Prairie Creek Pastures (Tremont, IL) (Faith’s Dad & Brothers)

2) Speckled Hill Ranch (Mediapolis, IA) (Faith’s 1st Cousins)

3) Wagenbach Family Farms (Princeville, IL) (Faith’s Uncle/ Aunt)

4) Covenant Pastures (Cylinder, IA) (Us)

We are blessed to have an abundance of resources through our family to help us improve our dairy.

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So, what are we using the rest of the shed for?  Let’s start with a little background…

Both Faith and I grew up in Central Illinois.  I moved to NW Iowa in 2021 to take a job at a local regenerative ag equipment manufacturer (Montag).  Through working here, I became more exposed to regenerative practices such as cover cropping and strip-tilling.  In 2023, I married Faith, who grew up milking cows.  My wife slowly worked on converting me to a healthier lifestyle and diet.

Later that year, we had an opportunity to purchase a small field on the edge of Cylinder.  We had various ideas on how we could use it - from putting in an orchard to building greenhouses.  We had a desire to use this land to sell regeneratively raised food but were not sure how to start this.

We were excited when Flat Rock Living started selling raw milk.  After a couple of years, the Fehr’s felt the need to sell their cows.

On June 28, 2025, we told Michael that we were interested in purchasing their cows and equipment.  This was a decision that we had to make very quickly to try to transition before harvest.

Earlier this year, we started raising broiler chickens on pasture as well as started increasing our egg layer flock.  We also put together a website, even though raw milk was not on the radar at that point.  This helped to kick-start the process as these details were mostly worked through already.

The next few months were extremely busy as we started designing and building our shed (with help from family and friends).  The design rapidly evolved into what it is today.

A few things that we wanted to include:

1) A self-serve farm store

2) A milking parlor

3) A processing area for working with milk products, produce, and/or butchering

4) A “barn” where cows could come in during adverse weather conditions (although cows do very well in the pasture through all but the coldest weather).

As we continued working through this design, we decided to add a 2nd story to the shed - to live in!  This would enable us to have an all-in-one building to improve efficiency.  It will probably be a year or two until we finish out the upstairs into our new home, but that is the long-term goal.

Currently the shed is essentially ready for winter, although there is much to continue working on the next few years.  There will also probably eventually be a deck on the upper level with dry storage beneath for hay and to provide more shelter for the animals from the weather.

We are thankful for the many people’s support the last 5 months in getting us here.

Remember to take advantage of our referral program and let your families know about our farm as you gather this week for Thanksgiving!

Thanks also for your feedback in the survey sent out last week.  If you have not already filled it out, you still can.  Be on the lookout for additional news the next few weeks!

See below for a few order notes with the new farm store:

1) Orders must be placed through website prior to pickup.

2) For every order pickup, please mark on the paper in the farm store what you specifically picked up.

3) If you have a subscription, you don't have to worry about placing a specific order through the website as the subscription generates the next order automatically.

4) Feel free to pick up more than your subscription or what you ordered.  Just mark it down accordingly, and we will update your order.

5) Please note that this building is under construction, so be careful, especially around exposed wires and insulation.

6) We do monitor the cameras in the farm store to ensure a smooth pickup experience.

7) Farm store is open for pickup Mon-Sat, 6 AM to 9 PM.  The goal is to be flexible to fit everyone's schedule, but please respect these hours.

8) We are currently storing some meat and other product in the chest freezer in the farm store (as our other freezers are over-flowing).  We cannot legally sell this product.  We may at times store other product for sale in the chest freezer though.

Your farmers - the Schrock Family