-Submitted photo
Aaron Titterington helps a young visitor at the dairy farm milk a cow. Titterington said their "Breakfast on the Farm" allows visitors to become farmers for their time there, with only 2% of the population actually getting to live on a farm.

SPENCER — Spencer-based Jones Dairy will host its fourth “Breakfast on the Farm” June 21 from 7 to 10 a.m. at the dairy.

Aaron Titterington, who co-manages the dairy with her brother, Nate Jones, said the reason they do it is simple — they want to promote the dairy industry as it is lived on their farm.

“I feel like it’s an opportunity to be a farmer in this day and age when only 2% of the population grows up on a farm, so we want to provide that experience,” she said of the opportunity for attendees to come, eat and learn about a dairy farm, and have a dairy farm experience while there.

“Breakfast on the Farm” will feature breakfast burritos with eggs, sausage, cheese, salsa and vegetables, and a choice of yogurt with berries — along with Boji Spuds donuts and chocolate milk, for those who have a sweeter early-morning taste.

Breakfast activities include a petting zoo, corn “sandbox,” educational demonstrations from agricultural organizations, watching the 64-cow rotary parlor milking process from the upper and lower observation decks, seeing farm and feeding equipment up close, and getting to milk a real cow by hand.

-Submitted photo
Aaron Titterington said the cows at Jones Dairy are "happy cows," and enjoy human interaction. Here, a young boy enjoys his visit with a curious cow as much as the cow seems to be enjoying it.

Previous events on the farm (including regular tours throughout the year) have brought people from all across the country to visit as they spend time in the Iowa Great Lakes area. The first two breakfast events drew between 800 and 900 guests, and the last one (which took place following their 2023 expansion) took in roughly 2,000 guests, by their best estimates.

“It’s a great family event,” said Titterington. “You can come to see and be around the cows in a real barn, and see that they are happy cows. People tell us they really didn’t have any idea that the cows are happy and that they like the system.”

Titterington said the event preparation calls for all hands on deck.

“This takes the help of all 28 of our employees, plus well over 30 volunteers. It’s also the blessing of having seven siblings all come back to help with this, too — and not only my siblings, but all of their spouses and their families come to help with it. We grew up on this dairy farm, so we’re all hugely invested here,” said Titterington.

Attendees can visit the freestall barns and get up close to the cows as they are eating and resting. Family members, volunteers and employees of the dairy will also be there to talk about dairy feed and how it’s harvested.

“Last year by the end I think all the cows were sleeping,” said Titterington, adding that their cows tend to enjoy human company.

Teaching about dairy

Titterginton said when they conduct school tours there, hardly any students know a farmer. They get to milk a cow by hand, and she said students enjoy it when they get a couple of squirts. Dairy workers also talk to kids about the need for dairy products in the everyday foods they eat, including milk, cheese for their pizza, etc.

“We include milking cows by hand to help people understand that we would never get a five-gallon bucket of milk this way, let alone two semi loads; but because we don’t have to milk by hand, technology allows us to produce enough milk for everybody,” she said.

Titterington said from a consumer standpoint, dairy is somewhat of a complete product.

“If you give your child a piece of real cheese or a glass of high-quality milk, you’re providing a lot of nutrients and minerals and vitamins right there,” she said. “Dairy provides huge nutritional value with no ingredients. I think people are paying more attention to not eating things that have 200 ingredients.”

Titterington said Jones Dairy wants to help ensure that consumers are confident in the way dairy food products are produced.

“If we can show some people that what we’re doing looks good, and they feel confident at this level, then maybe they’ll tell their friends, or when they’re looking at cottage cheese at the store, they’ll have some level of trust in how that product was produced,” she said.

She said by providing this agricultural exposure, she hopes consumers can better understand how their dairy products get from the farm to the table.

While there are many options for milk consumption, Titterington sees Greek yogurt, cottage cheese and cheese as being (or staying) “huge.”

She said protein-enriched weight loss can even be aided with the help of dairy.

“There are a lot of vitamins, minerals and nutrients in five bites of cottage cheese on a salad. Three-quarters of a cup of cottage cheese is around 14 grams of protein, depending on which brand, and it has some fat, which is important because your body can’t utilize that protein without some fat,” said Titterington.

She said one glass of milk a day provides 13 necessary nutrients to support good health, adding that she and her siblings have experienced the positive effects of a diet that includes dairy, having grown up with it as a staple.

“I appreciate my immune system and my ability to develop muscle,” she said.

The dairy

A 2023 expansion brought more dairy cows (up to the current 2,000 head count), a new carousel-style milking parlor, new barn and a visitor’s center to Jones Dairy, located northeast of Spencer.

Owned by Patrick and Nancy Jones, the dairy milks 2,000 Jersey cows three times a day and ships 1 1/2 semi loads of Grade A milk daily to Agropur in Le Seuer, Minnesota, where it is made into cheese and sold to other outlets for further processing or resale. Weigh protein is also a byproduct of some of the Jones Dairy milk taken to Agropur.

Titterington said she sees the dairy industry having a “shining future,” and that Jones Dairy is doing what it can to help that happen.

“Our goal is always to share what we have — not everyone gets to have a dairy farm,” she said. “We have an open-door policy because we think it helps build trust.”

Titterington said people in general seem excited about their “Breakfast on the Farm” from past experiences with it.

“We hear that people are telling other people they should come because they can see the milk ‘right there,’ so I think if we’re providing a positive experience, then we’re doing our part to support dairy as much as we can. Then the actual product marketing teams can do their job next in getting the milk from the farm to the table.”

“Breakfast on the Farm” is free, come and go, and open to the public.