As the cows eat what is left from breakfast, Florencia Vera, 4, carries a pitch fork on September 17, 2016 over to Adolfo, her dad, so he can get dinner ready for them in Barryton, Mich. The Vera family feeds their cows ground up corn, hay, minerals and specific vitamins they need to produce healthy milk.
Rescued Dairy Farm
While traveling from Mexico to Michigan, Adolfo Vera had his mind set on his own American dream. Vera left Mexico mainly for work, but also because he truly does not like the quality of life in his home country.
According to Adolfo, when police pull people over in Mexico, they talk the driver into paying them to avoid getting in trouble with the law. Most of his family stayed behind in Mexico, taking care of their own farm, selling some cows for beef as well as milking others.
However, Adolfo moved on to Michigan and later decided to visit family in California. He met his future wife, Ana, through a family friend of theirs, and it was love at first sight. She came back to Michigan with him and shortly after they got married, they started a family.
Adolfo and Ana have four children - Adolfo Jr., 7, Nathalia, 6, Florencia, 3, and Gerardo, 6 months. They decided to try life in Ohio for a bit, with Adolfo still working on dairy farms, and in the end decided Michigan is where they wanted to raise their family.
Adolfo got tired of working under people and having issues with his bosses, so as a couple they decided they wanted to start a dairy farm of their own in Barryton, Mich.
Currently, they are renovating a dairy farm that has been out of commission since 2009. They have been working on this farm since August 2015 and already have high hopes of bringing in cows by December 2015.
There are endless amounts of work to do, but Adolfo and Ana are more than prepared to take on this challenge.
In addition to working on the farm, Ana works part time as a school bus driver, and Adolfo is on call for multiple dairy farms around the area to help out for extra money. Not only do they want this farm to be a success for financial reasons, but also to have some solidity for their children's futures here in America.
All in for Milk - One Year Later
Adolfo and Ana Vera were pouring everything into buying a dairy farm over multiple payments, and they have reached their goal of owning their very own farm in Barryton, Mich.
While the Veras were in the process of buying the farm from a man, they created a contract stating he would continue to live on the property until all of the payments were finalized. Once it was officially the Vera farm, they bought cows to start milking them after they passed all of the inspections and requirements. The man living on the property began to enjoy seeing his old farm become new again, and decided to fight the Veras to stay there.
“He started telling people that this was his farm and these were his cows,” Ana said.
The Vera family is now fighting to get the original owner off of the property with proof in the contract where it states that he agreed to leave after payments were finished. They have been forced to move a camper onto their property so it is easier to milk the cows in the morning, as they live about ten miles away from the farm.
Nonetheless, through all of the struggles, the Veras are fulfilling their dream one day at a time. Adolfo is still working some nights taking care of sick cows at a nearby farm, while Ana continues to work some afternoons as a bus driver.
They currently have fourteen cows, eleven of them are able to be milked, which is also bringing in income for the family.
The entire family is all in for this farm. While two of their children are in Mexico visiting Adolfo’s family (Nathalia Vera, 7, and Adolfo Jr. Vera, 8), the two youngest children are always hanging out at the farm with their parents.
Ana hopes to attend Michigan State University to take some classes through their Dairy Teaching & Research Center so she can be just as knowledgeable about cows as Adolfo is. However, since helping Adolfo every day milking and caring for the cows, she is much more comfortable than the first day the cows arrived in June 2016.
A main goal they have for the future is to have about three-hundred cows in five years. They are buying a few cows at a time to gradually grow their farm. The cows are milked twice a day and the milk is picked up every two days.
The Veras are willing to do anything and everything to keep their beloved farm growing. It will be an even greater relief when they will permanently live on the farm so they will have a living space to comfortably fit the family of six in. No matter what, their business is off of the ground, and they will not stop working towards their goals.
“It’s a dirty job, but we like it,” Ana said.
Adolfo Vera crawls under the cement floor on Oct. 29, 2015 to work on a drain in one of the newest barns as his wife Ana Vera chats with him from above. Adolfo is determined to start up the abandoned dairy farm that hasn't been in operation since 2009.
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Cows finish gathering into the milking shed on September 17, 2016 as the Veras follow closely behind. “They just know when it’s time,” Ana said about getting the cows in the barn in Barryton, Mich.
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From left, Adolfo Vera Jr. 7, and his sisters Nathalia, 6, and Florencia, 3, take a breather from all the jumping as they play together on the trampoline on Nov. 1, 2015.
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Coming altogether at the end of a long day, the Vera family all sit on one bed on September 26, 2016. The days for them start as early as five in the morning and can last until ten at night in Barryton, Mich. “It’s a dirty job, but we like it,” Ana said.
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Loading the feeding truck on September 17, 2016 with the mixture of food for the cows, Adolfo spends all day working on the farm with his family in Barryton, Mich. Florencia, 4, seems to always be close by, helping out with anything that is asked of her.
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