Starting a Farm as Grandparents
Like many other raw milk farmers, Shelley and Matt Harding didn’t start out intending to farm. Shelley has worked as an electrician, cosmetologist, and more recently as an educator for medical coding. Matt has a background in criminal justice and construction, and is currently a machinist for the railroad.
Their kids were grown, and Shelley and Matt were settling into their role as grandparents. Yet something was missing. Shelley and Matt found themselves re-connecting with old dreams of having a small farm. So, they purchased some farm land where they could expand their garden and raise more chickens.
But it wasn’t enough, especially for Matt. He had fond memories of having a nurse cow and raising calves as a hobby during his teens and again in his twenties. He recalled a certain peacefulness from spending time with his cattle. Now, decades later, Matt knew he wanted to have a cow again. But Shelley…
Shelley didn’t even *like* milk. The taste and smell turned her off, and she’d had lactose intolerance symptoms for almost 20 years. Anytime she drank milk or milk products, she’d end up with abdominal cramping. Even still, Shelley knew how much it meant to Matt to have a cow again, so in the Spring of 2020 the Hardings brought home Miss Daisy, a pregnant Holstein heifer.
The Habit of Excellence
Shelley is a detail-oriented kinda person. She naturally wants to do everything with excellence, and farming would be no different. If they were gonna have a cow and milk her, they were gonna do it right and do it well. Matt built a custom milking barn, and Shelley went to work on learning the ins-and-outs of safe raw milk.
With free mentoring from the Raw Milk Institute, the Hardings learned how to optimize their milking barn set-up, udder preparation, milking methods, bottling, and cleaning. They converted their basement into a milk bottling room, and worked hard to get the all of the details right.
No More Lactose Intolerance or Allergies
But the milk… that was a big surprise for Shelley. Miss Daisy’s raw milk didn’t smell or taste bad to Shelley like storebought milk had. And Shelley didn’t have lactose intolerance symptoms with raw milk, either!
Since she started drinking raw milk daily, Shelley no longer has gastrointestinal problems, and her seasonal allergies went away, too. No more allergy medications and no more sinus headaches. Raw milk helped their granddaughter overcome her allergies, too. The Harding’s experience aligns with scientific studies which have found that raw milk consumption is specifically associated with reduced rates of allergies.
Next Steps
Shelley and Matt’s S&M Farm is the newest dairy to be LISTED by the Raw Milk Institute. They pride themselves on providing healthy, low-risk milk to a few families in Kansas. Although Miss Daisy is their only cow for now, Shelley and Matt are already thinking about growing their dairy and building an on-farm lab for milk bacterial testing. The Raw Milk Institute welcomes S&M Farm to our community!
