To Have and to Hold

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A dairy farming couple shares their love story and how they lived through “for better or for worse.”

 

Nestled on the San Joaquin River in California’s Central Valley lies Stockton, Calif., a small town south of Sacramento. It’s here that Ron and Sherri Prins went to the same high school, but they didn’t really know each other until after graduation. Then, they caught each other’s eye at a friend’s wedding. Sherri was 19 and Ron was 21. Shortly after, they began dating.

“I pretty much knew she was the one,” Ron says. The pair married one year later, and together they started building a life they had only dreamed about as individuals; but now, as a married couple, they could start a family and create a future. Like most love stories, the pair had big aspirations starting out as a young couple. They faced some challenges along the way, but two things remained steady: They were going to raise a family and they were going run a dairy together.

From this day forward

The Prins have now celebrated more than 30 years of marriage. They have four children who are all grown and raising families of their own. Together, they milk about 1,100 cows and focus on a family atmosphere through all aspects of their operation.

“There’s your health and your family’s health, and taking care of your family is number one,” Ron says. “To this day, Sherri and I are a team. Dairy farming is just a way of life that we live. We’re not punching a clock day to day.”

Sherri married into the farming family, and with Ron, took over his parents’ dairy. Ron oversees the farm and employees while Sherri cares for the calves with help from their many grandchildren — 13 to be exact.

“The grandkids come and help in the calf barn, and they all really love being a part of the dairy,” Sherri says. Caring for cows is part of their success, but caring for one another has created a strong bond that keeps the third-generation family operation running smoothly.

“The grandkids kind of lighten the air pretty quick. Having them come around the dairy, they can always put a smile on your face,” Ron says. “The interaction with animals and being able to take care of our cows, learning the work ethic, all those things are very important to us, and that’s something we passed on to our kids and now our grandchildren.”

With a wonderful marriage, their children raised and out of the house and loving grandparents to more than a handful of grandchildren, Ron and Sherri seem to have it all.

But things didn’t always go according to plan.

In sickness and in health

In 2000, Sherri started to experience a lot of headaches. They started off as a daily annoyance, but gradually continued to get worse.

“I found her curled up in bed one day with severe headaches, and thought, ‘OK, that’s it, I’m taking her to the doctor,’” Ron says.

The doctors found a mass and diagnosed Sherri with a brain tumor. The shocking news stopped the couple in their tracks. 

“Thoughts start going through your head,” Ron says. “How am I going to raise our four kids and do everything else that goes along with being a dairy farmer?”

Their lives were established, their farm was on the right track and their kids were growing. “We weren’t sure what the future would hold,” Sherri says. “There were some pretty tough times for a while, but Ron was my rock. He was very stable and made sure the kids were taken care of, that we had food and that all the chores on the dairy were checked off.” With Ron by her side, Sherri could focus on healing. “I didn’t feel like I had anything to worry about because Ron was taking care of everything.”

As with most marriages, Ron and Sherri had to work hard for their love story. They had to fight, not only to continue their relationship, but for their family. “What’s going to happen to my family if something happens to me? These are the kinds of conversations we had to start having. We weren’t sure what the future would hold,” Sherri says.

As they do on the dairy, Ron and Sherri worked as a team to find the right doctor, determine the next steps and create a successful path toward a positive future and a cure. After a hard-fought battle and numerous trips to different hospitals and doctors, Sherri had surgery and was given good news — she was healthy and tumor-free. The tumor was benign and did not spread to other parts of her body. The couple could start thinking about their future again — together.

“Our faith got us through a lot of that. There were a lot of prayers prayed for me,” Sherri says. “I think our marriage definitely grew closer, and now, I’m healthy, and I’ve been able to see my grandkids be born. It’s pretty amazing.”

To love and to cherish

Today, Sherri’s back on the family farm, using their operation and herd as therapy to help redevelop her brain. “My brain healed, but it was a long process, so feeding calves was a part of that process — remembering numbers, who the mom was,” Sherri says.

“I do think Ron knew that it would be good therapy for me, but he didn’t tell me that was the reason,” Sherri says of his encouragement for her to work with the calves. “But it’s all been so good.” For those at Prins Dairy, caring for their cows has always been part of their success, but now, it has also helped keep their family legacy alive and well.

“I think sometimes when you have little kids, you get very caught up in just the daily chores — bath time, homework, meals — and you kind of forget the value of their life and what that means and that you’re raising adults, and their lives are very important, more important than all the other stuff that we do,” Sherri says.

For the Prins, their love story on the dairy continues to live on. Their lives have slowed down some, but as long as they’re together, Ron and Sherri wouldn’t have it any other way.

Warm and Cozy

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It may be cold outside, but dairy farmers — like the Korn family — keep their herd comfortable, no matter the weather. 

 

With snow falling more than four months of the year, and some mountainous areas receiving even more winter weather, Idahoans like husband and wife Richard and Kim Korn, who operate Korn Dairy, are well accustomed to donning their snow boots and winter coats. The Korn family has weathered through their share of Idaho winters on their third-generation family dairy in Terreton, Idaho. They work hard to provide comfortable conditions for their herd of 90 Holstein and Brown Swiss dairy cattle 365 days a year, including the chilly ones.

Their responsibility to take care of their cows is an everyday endeavor, so nothing, including cold winters, will stop them from maintaining a high level of care. That starts with caring for each cow as if she was the only one.

The Korns use trackers that the cows wear around their necks to monitor their health. If a cow’s temperature or exercise levels are off, the Korns are able to quickly identify the cow, so they can check on her and provide any necessary care.

But, while the Korns may have to bundle up in their winter gear to go check on their herd, the cows are right at home in the cold weather. Their thick skin, coarse hair and natural insultation help them stay warm. In fact, all year long, cows have an internal body temperature of around 101 degrees, and they prefer temperatures between 40 and 65 degrees. They don’t typically get stressed due to cold temperatures until they reach nearly 20 degrees below zero for a long period of time — and dedicated dairy farmers make sure that doesn’t happen.

When temperatures dip below or near freezing, cows have their barn mates to thank for helping keep them warm. Cozied up, cows can produce enough heat to warm the barn and stay nice and comfortable. And to keep it even more toasty, farmers may put up curtains or plastic to mitigate snow or drafty winds getting in the barn. Some barns in areas with cold winters are even equipped with built-in wind protectors that can be manually raised or lowered, depending on the weather that day. The Korns ensure their girls have extra dry bedding on cold days to help insulate the barn and keep the cows dry.

“Another thing we have to prepare for is something breaking, such as our stock tank heaters,” Kim says. “Since we’re 50 miles from the closest store for parts, we’re sure to have spare parts on hand.”

A cow’s diet also plays a factor in keeping her warm during the winter. Dairy farmers may alter their cows’ feed rations to accommodate for their bodies using energy to keep them warm. And they don’t let up on their drinking habits, either. Cows can drink upwards of five gallons of water in a single minute, so farmers ensure their water tanks are always full to keep up with demand. In the winter, it’s especially important that the water source is checked, too, to make sure pipes don’t freeze or water gets too cold to drink (cows prefer a water temperature anywhere between 40 to 65 degrees).

The little ones are cared for in much the same manner. But because calves are smaller, they require a little extra warmth, including more straw, a separate barn with space heaters or an enclosed hutch away from the elements. In some conditions, calves also wear warm, quilted jackets. At Korn Dairy, the calves in hutches get dried milk fat added to their milk bottles during the winter. The extra calories give them more energy against the cold temperatures.

Cows are tough animals and are well-equipped to face the many seasons and temperature fluctuations the environment gives us. It takes dedicated family farmers, like the Korns, to ensure that they are cared for despite the cold winds of winter or heat of summer. “We love the dairy lifestyle, working with family, caring for our cows throughout the seasons and being productive and involved members of our community,” Richard says.