Celebrating 90 years! Our Story

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About

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

4th

generation family farm

Guided by a faith, family values, and hard work, the Cook family has been producing Grade A dairy products since 1933.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Stars

of the Show

Meet Stella (#64). One of our eldest and highest producing cows. She has been with the farm for quite sometime and like all of our cows is truly the star of the show. We couldn't be more thankful for them as provide the community with high-quality dairy. Want to meet them in-person or taste their delicious dairy?

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Made

Fresh

in Ortonville, Michigan

Our products are all authentically fresh from Ortonville, Michigan where we grow corn for our cattle feed, milk the cows, and make our sweet ice cream.

 
 
Hay Bales Icon in Cook's Farm Dairy Badge

We grow the crops to feed the cows,

 
 
Cooks Cow Icon in Cook's Farm Dairy Badge

We Milk the cows,

 
 
Ice Cream Milk Icon in Cook's Farm Dairy Badge

and make the finest dairy, on-site.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Mission

Serve God, Serve the community, and serve delicious dairy.

Green IconColossians 3:23Green Icon
 
 
 
 
 

Work

with us.

Find your place on the farm by applying to join the Cook's Farm family.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Farm

History

 
 
1933 Ford Dealership in Clarkston, Michigan
 
 
In 1933 Clark Miller had a choice.

Stay in Clarkston and work for his father, Ben Miller, at a Ford dealership he owned located on Main Street in the downtown area, or move north to a farm in Brandon Township. He moved north.

 
 
Cooks Farm Dairy established 1933
 
 
100 Acres +

Over the years Miller added on to the 100-acre farm located at 2950 Seymour Lake Road, which included milk cows. He purchased his first tractor in 1941.

 
 
Cooks Farm Dairy 1st Tractor 1941
 
 
Cooks Farm Dairy Barn on fire 1950's
 
 
Thirsty Blaze Swallows Dairy Farm

In the 1950's an unfortunate turn of events happened and the family dairy barn burned down. It was time to rebuild.

 
 
Cooks Farm Dairy Rebuilding Barn after fire 1950's
 
 
Cooks Farm Dairy Rebuilding Silo after fire 1950's
 
 
Clark Cook wins Showmanship Award
 
 
Showmanship Award Winner

In 1977 Clark Cook won Sr. Showmanship in diary. Also winning Top Showman in beef, swine, sheep, and goats. Leading him to become the Overall Showman of the 1977 Fair Awards.

 
 
Changing the way we did business

As an agricultural student at Michigan State University during the fall of 1979, Clark was given a class assignment to write a comprehensive business plan using the family farm that would, in theory, increase profits. At that time Cook’s Farm was selling their milk to the Michigan Milk Producers Association, a cooperative owned and controlled by dairy farmers throughout the state.

Clark’s plan was to halt selling the milk to the MMPA and construct a processing plant for the 300 gallons of milk they produced each day at the farm. The plan also incorporated the idea of putting milk into plastic bags, popular in Canada at the time and creating a drive-up window for local customers to purchase the farm fresh milk.

“I received a 92 percent grade on the project—second highest grade in the class,” recalls Clark. “Then I came home and built the plant—breaking ground in 1981,” he said. “In February 1982 we sold our first gallon of milk to area resident George Miller. The idea was to have farm fresh milk with a drive-up window—about 70 percent of our business picked it up that way.”

 
 
Clark Cook holding bag of Milk
 
 
Cooks Farm Dairy Drive Thru 1982
 
 
Part of the community
 
 
Cooks Farm Dairy Float Reading "From Moo To You" in Clarkston, Michigan Parade 1980's
 
 
Cooks Farm Dairy Float Clarkston, Michigan Parade
 
 
Ice Cream Sales Begin

"About a year later milk sales were down—the plastic bags were hard to promote," added Clark. "So in 1983 we started making ice cream with the extra milk—producing about 135 gallons per hour in plastic tubs."

 
 
Clark Cook holding ice cream cone 1983
 
 
Citizen Newspaper Ad Promoting new Cooks Farm Dairy Ice Cream Sales
 
 
Millers Serving Ice Cream at Cooks Farm Dairy
 
 
Holy cow! Triplets born at the farm.

A very special day in history of the farm when we had triplets born at the farm.

 
 
Cooks Farm Dairy Triplets are born
 
 
Visiting the farm

Farming was becoming more obsolete in the 1980's we decided to open the farm to the public to see how our operations worked. We opened the farm for our guests to pet the cows and began giving tours to local schools and organizations. We even booked Santa for visits during the holiday season.

 
 
Farm Tours
 
 
Santa at the Farm 1980s
 
 
Kids at the Farm 1980s
 
 
A New Look at 30 Years

"The ice cream will stay the same—the recipe is a family secret—but due to plastic costs the tubs will be replaced with a new multi-color paper container to mark the 30-year anniversary. We have 20 flavors of ice cream that we churn at a slower rate and with double the ingredients for flavor—we’re not cutting back on quality."

 
 
Celebrating 30 years in business with new packaging
 
 
A special visitor

In the 90's Michigan Governor, John Engler visited the farm along with Michigan state representative Tom Middleton

 
 
Michigan Governor John Engler visits Cook's Farm Dairy with Michigan State Representative Tom Middleton
 
 
Cook Family Expands with new generation for family farm.
 
 
Cook's Farm Dairy Family with Green Tractor
 
 
Cooks Farm Dairy Family Pictured on Tractor in front of Silos Photo By The Citizen Ortonville, Michigan
 
 
As seen in

Every now and then the farm is used for various productions including Kid Rock's Born Free music video.

 
 
 
 
Best of the Best

Thank you to all of our loyal customers and fans who have made our ice cream the best of the best year after year in The Citizen, Oakland Press and more!

 
 
Newspaper Article Best Sundae from The Citizen in Brandon, Michigan
 
 
Oakland Press Best of the Best Ice Cream Ribbon
 
 
Milking Automated

In 2020 we installed a Lely milking machine. Since adding the milking machine, not only has milk production increased, we have also seen in increase in our cows health and reproductivity.

 
 
Lely Milking Machine
 
 
Introducing Birthday Cake

In 2023 we celebrated our 90 years in business with a new ice cream flavor, Birthday Cake. It is as delicious as it sounds!

 
 
Clark and Lori Cook eating Birthday Cake Ice Cream at Cook's Farm Dairy in Brandon, Michigan