Torena Farms

The family started out showing cows in 4-H, and when their youngest aged out of the programme they chose to keep the herd and build a dairy around it rather than sell their girls. Philomina, the cow their oldest son won all those years ago, is still milking today. The herd now runs to multiple generations of Holsteins, Brown Swiss and Jerseys, kept on pasture year round with free choice grass, alfalfa and minerals. The family milks through an enclosed pipeline system on a raised six stall herringbone platform they designed and built themselves, in a barn they also built, in 2022. Milk is filtered, cooled below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, bottled and into refrigerators set at 32 degrees within ten minutes of leaving the cow.

Milk is sold by herdshare rather than over a counter. A share costs $50 once, and one share carries a boarding fee of $19.50 a week for a gallon of raw milk, with half shares and multiple shares available and no extra charges for broken or dirty jars. Because the family breeds for calves all year there is no dry period, so shareholders get milk every week of the year. Deliveries run weekly to refrigerated pickup sites across the Front Range, including Washington Park, Littleton, Morrison, Erie, Loveland, Greeley, Hudson, Brighton, Wiggins, Brush and Fort Collins, each with a two to three day pickup window. The farm keeps its exact address and its pickup points private for the security of its members, and arranges everything by email.