OKEANA, Ohio – In 2019, Emily Mullen graduated from the Ohio State Agricultural Technical Institute and returned home to run her family’s dairy farm. She has since opened a creamery and built a state-of-the-art barn with robotic milkers and space for education programs.

“There had been no updates made to our facility for about 40 years because my father (Tim) had four girls and didn’t believe that anyone was going to take over the family farm,” Mullen said. “In 2020, I opened our creamery, The Mullen Dairy and Creamery, where we pasteurize fluid milk for our community to give them the opportunity to understand where their food comes from.”

The creamery offers about 25 milk flavors. Besides white, chocolate and strawberry, Mullen also offers cookies and cream, vanilla, even banana and cotton candy, plus homemade soaps and lotions. Her mother, Amy, and sister, Elizabeth Mullen help run the creamery.

“The creamery was an opportunity for us to diversify to bring in some extra income to make the updates we needed to keep our family’s farm running,” Emily Mullen said.

The big update started a year ago when Mullen began construction on a new facility for the dairy, the creamery and an education facility.

“I have a great passion for agricultural education,” Mullen said. “It’s a real shame that more kids in our country don’t have an opportunity to see all of the jobs that are available to them in agriculture.”

Mullen’s dream was to build a barn around the animal’s needs and where the cows are completely comfortable, but also for people to be able to walk through and get the full story behind the glass of milk they drink every day, she explained.

If a barn is geared to a cow’s comfort the animals are healthier and more productive. That makes it easier for the producer.

The space for cows in the new barn is 96-by-138 feet. It has freestalls with mats so they have a comfortable, safe place to lie down. The freestall loops help the cows to, supposedly, lay with their heads all the same way, and their rear ends facing the alleyway. When they defecate it goes directly out into the concrete alley instead of where they are laying. The loops are flexible which means fewer injuries to the cattle.

“There are alley scrapers incorporated into this barn,” Mullen said. “The thing that is super important with a robotic facility is that you are letting a cow dictate her own schedule. The less time you spend in here with the cows, the happier they’re going to be. These alley scrapers mean I don’t have to take a skid loader in this barn where the lactating cows are.”

The Holsteins choose when to visit the robot to be milked. The hope is to milk every cow three times a day. If a cow goes longer than 10 hours without milking Mullen gets a notice on her phone that she needs to check on that animal.

“The thing about the robot is the opportunity to individualize each animal,” she said. “Every animal has her own spreadsheet on the computer, her own data that has been collected since her last freshening.

“I can track everything from her milk production – today number 752 has given 112 pounds, her weekly average is 109,” Mullen said. “It also tracks how many minutes a day she is eating and how many ruminations she is having in a day.”

Grants are a wonderful tool and Mullen made good use of them to help build the facility, she explained. Fortunately, the government is gearing funding toward young people in agriculture. They are starting to realize the need to protect where our food is coming from. The local Farm Service Agency office is a great place to investigate grants.

“They can point you to a lot of these funding opportunities and often walk you through the grant writing process because it is extensive and very time-consuming,” she said.

Mullen also takes care of all the crops on the farm. She spends as much time in the new barn as she did in the old, but now, if it’s 10 at night after a day of fieldwork, that is OK.

“Flexibility is what allows you to be a better manager of your farm overall,” she said.

Flexibility is important because she has her first student visit scheduled in a couple of weeks. Area farmer and education specialist Suzanne Wendel was her mentor for the education facility. She will have six stations for the kids to siphon through. She hopes to teach them what it is like to be a farmer for a day, especially a small producer.

“As a small producer, and as one of a shrinking number of small farmers in this country, I am a jack-of-all-trades,” she said. “I am the calf specialist, the lactating cow specialist, the crop specialist as well. I have a very different schedule and a very different mindset (from a larger producer) and it is something to be celebrated. The level of dedication and the amount of work that a small producer has to put in is second to none. It is not easy. It is in your blood and you have to really want to do it because there are no days off.”

For information visit The Mullen Dairy & Creamery on Facebook.