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CapitalPress.com
June 2, 2017
Brothers start dairy of their own
By HEATHER SMITH THOMAS
For the Capital Press
CASTLEFORD, Idaho — After
interning on their uncles’ dairies
in California, Jerome and Nathan
Vander Poel started their own dairy.
“Our dad is a veterinarian, and
our uncles milk cows, so we grew
up around dairy cattle,” Jerome
said.
“A year ago we talked about
starting a dairy in Iowa or Nebras-
ka. Then we had a chance to look
at Idaho and decided this was where
we wanted to go,” he said. “My
brother and I are young — I am 20
and Nathan is 22 — and Idaho has
a growing dairy industry. This dairy
at Castleford was one of several we
looked at that was for sale.”
It was closed but the brothers
determined that it had a lot of po-
tential. It also needed some work on
the facilities.
“Then we hand-picked cows
from dairies across the U.S. to fill it
Heather Smith Thomas/For the Capital Press
Brothers Jerome and Nathan Vander
Poel bought a farm near Castleford,
Idaho, last year and started Northern
Sky Dairy from scratch.
up,” Jerome said.
“We started with Holsteins, but
in January started adding Jerseys
because of the way the markets
have grown,” he said. “We like a
balance, to have both breeds.”
The nice part about starting from
scratch was being able to select only
the cows they wanted.
“Some dairies, everything is al-
ready there when you buy them,
including the cows. In a way that
would be easier, since we had to
bring everything in and fix every-
thing up. But every cow here is one
we wanted,” Jerome said.
They are milking 800 cows but
plan to keep expanding.
“We wanted to start small and
build up. Winters here are total-
ly different than California, so we
wanted to start with something we
could manage, and test this area be-
fore we got really big,” he said.
“We made it through the first
winter, which everyone is telling
us was the worst in 30 years, so I
think we can handle it!” Jerome said.
“That was the biggest test, for us.”
He and Nathan plan to grow their
dairy — and buy more.
“On our next dairy we hope to
just buy it with everything already
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there,” he said. “The way we did this
one, going through the whole start-
ing process, is a lot tougher.”
They have a lot of plans, he said.
“We have uncles in the dairy
business and they are good men-
tors,” Jerome said. “My brother and
I have seen about 100 different dair-
ies, run many different ways, so we
were able to put our dairy together
the way we wanted.”
They are also familiar with ani-
mal health, from helping their father.
Theirs has been a valuable edu-
cation.
“Neither of us went to college.
We chose instead to have a hands-on
education in the dairy. Even if you
do go to college, you have to come
back and learn it through experience
on a dairy,” he explained.
“Some things, you have to be
there to learn it, and some things you
learn the hard way and that’s the best
teacher. If you make the wrong deci-
sion you’ll remember it and never do
that again,” he said.
Eventually they will keep a lot of
heifers to help facilitate expansion
plans, but it will take a little time to
build up the replacement program.
The two brothers always had a
partnership in mind.
“It’s been a great adventure, be-
cause when we came here it wasn’t
like having a family dairy to start in,
or to ask a family member for ad-
vice,” he said.
“We had to piece everything to-
gether ourselves and learn quickly,”
he said.
They grew up near Modesto,
Calif., and their uncles have dairies
near Bakersfield.
“When we graduated from high
school we migrated down to Bakers-
field and started learning the dairy
business — and then we ventured to
Idaho,” Jerome said.
The goal is to keep their cows
healthy and happy.
“A happy cow is a happy life. As
long as the cows are happy, we’re
happy!”
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