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CapitalPress.com
June 1, 2018
Fifth generation
operates family farm
By HEATHER SMITH THOMAS
For the Capital Press
D18-1/101
Mahogany Ridge Dairy is the eastern-most
dairy in Idaho, on the Idaho-Wyoming line.
And it’s one of the oldest.
Devin Boehme and his father, Garth, op-
erate the dairy, which has been in the family
since the mid-1880s.
“My great-great-grandfather settled here
and I am the fifth generation to milk cows,”
Devin said.
Currently, they milk 100 cows, mostly Hol-
steins.
“I also have Brown Swiss, and Hol-
stein-Brown Swiss crossbreds,” He said. “Last
year I also started crossbreeding with Mont-
béliarde cattle, a breed similar to the Norwe-
gian Red.”
The Montbéliarde is a breed of red-and-
white dairy cattle originally from eastern
France, where they pastured in the mountains
— with the milkers following the cows. The
breed has good feet and legs, and more beef
characteristics than Holsteins. Their milk pro-
tein is also well-suited to cheese-making. The
breed is becoming popular for crossing with
Holsteins to create cows with better fertility
and longevity.
“My favorite cows are Holstein-Brown
Swiss cross. These breeds complement each
other for production and milk quality — with
more pounds of milk and higher butterfat and
protein,” he says. The crossbreds are hardy and
durable, and tend to stay longer in the herd.
“I don’t push my cows as much as most
dairies, so I get more years out of them. I have
a lot of cows that are on their eighth or ninth
lactation,” he said.
Boehme and his wife, Missy (Melis-
sa), have two daughters, Timzley, 6, and
Brixztyn, 3.
“This is totally a family operation,” Devin
said. “My dad does most of the milking and
we all do whatever needs to be done. I milk
and feed calves. I don’t mind driving tractor
for a few hours, but I prefer the maintenance,
fixing all the little problems, and taking care of
the cows.”
The dairy has a long tradition.
“My dad took over the dairy from my grand-
father in 1995; my grandfather and his brothers
had split the dairy and beef herd in 1989, and
that’s when grandpa became sole owner of the
dairy,” he said.
“In 2008 my two brothers and I became
part owners in the dairy with Dad, but then my
brothers went off to different careers,” he said.
Heather Thomas/For the Capital Press
Missy and Devin Boehme and their two girls at
their Mahogany Ridge Dairy.
Mahogany Ridge Dairy grows almost all of
its feed.
“We farm about 550 acres and also do 200
to 400 acres of custom work,” he said.
Winters are cold in this mountain valley.
“Last winter was miserable; we had 8 feet
of snow. The cows are in free stalls for shelter,
bedded with straw,” he said.
The barn faces east and gets early morning
sun in winter and is cool and shady in sum-
mer. Winters are hard but summers are great;
it rarely gets up to 90 degrees, he said, adding
that heat can be hard on dairy cows and calves.
“I would rather milk in cold weather than
extreme heat,” Devin said. “The big dairies
have to find ways to keep their cows cool in
the summer and pay for cooling methods, but
it always cools off at night here.”
The dairy is isolated.
“This makes it harder to get repairmen for
the barn or machinery. I’ve learned to do a lot
of things myself. We stock a lot of items so we
don’t have to run to town for an emergency
part,” he says.
He also does a lot of his own vet work, but
can now do pregnancy tests with the milk. “If
there’s a cow I want to check, I just pull a sam-
ple of her milk and send it with the milkman,”
he said. “He sends it to the lab where our milk
goes and they send back a report on whether
this cow is pregnant or not.”
Their milk is marketed in Utah, sent to the
Schreiber Food Cheese Plant near Smithfield,
and made into cheddar cheese.
The dairy also has a Facebook page and
tries to tell the story about farmers and dairies
so people know where their food comes from.