JONESVILLE, Mich. — A milestone for family farming was celebrated at Drakeland Farms recently, in Jonesville. Starting in 1862 Alonzo Munro Drake purchased 120 acres – and 150 years later the Drake family continues to farm the same ground, plus a few more acres.

In celebration, the Drakes invited the community out for ice cream, hospitality and an education. Cars lined the hayfield and the Drake family welcomed guests before they were invited to see several areas of the farm. Visitors enjoyed a tour of the milking facility and were told about milk quality and safety, as well as how the cows were housed, the life cycle of a cow, calf housing, nutrient management, crop production and natural recycling.

In addition the family had farm machinery on display to show how the equipment is used.

The education didn’t stop with the tours. After visitors enjoyed a dish of delicious ice cream, children were invited to hands-on learning centers including instruction on how to milk a cow and a visual lesson on what’s required for crops, and they were given the opportunity to plant their own soybean seed and take it home to watch it grow.

The full history of the farm was on display (pictured at right), with tables filled with old pictures dating back to the beginning of the farm in 1862. John Drake joined his father, Alonzo, in farming in the late 1800s and by 1930 the land was purchased by Claud and Veda Drake who, in the mid-1940s, moved out to the farm and began to work it with their three children.

In 1952, Claud’s son, J.C., began to farm and married Patricia. They diversified by adding pigs, chickens and cows and a short time later, everything left but the cows.

The 1960s were filled with good and bad for the Drake family. Oil was discovered in 1960 but in August 1964 fire destroyed the milking parlor, cow barn and hay barn. They rebuilt and were back milking in a new double-four herringbone parlor by November of the same year.

The partnership of Drakeland Farms was formed in the mid-1970s along with nearly doubling the number of cows to 85 and adding nearly 300 acres to the crop base. By the 1980s another generation of Drakes took over the farm, forming a new partnership and increasing their acreage.

It wasn’t until 2003 that Drakeland made the move to expand the dairy herd, as it jumped in cow numbers from 85 to 300 with the completion of a new dairy facility. In 2009, a second freestall barn was built and more cows were purchased, increasing to the present number of 560 Holsteins, while the family also farms 750 acres.

There are now seven generations of Drakes who have farmed the ground and milked the cows, north of Jonesville.