Our names are Joe and Jen Friesen, and we are from a small town in southeastern Manitoba called Grunthal. We both come from a farming background that left us passionate about Agriculture. We always knew we wanted to farm but for years didn’t know how we would make that happen. Thankfully, in 2019 we were successful applicants of Dairy Farmers of Manitoba’s new entrant program and we were able to purchase a dairy farm from our Grandparents. We are so grateful for the opportunity to farm here. Grandpa still shows up every morning in his old dodge. He tinkers away in the shop and every now and then will help with milking. He’s enjoying retirement, and we are living our dream farming as a family.

We are currently milking 45 cows, filling 74 kgs of quota and have a small beef herd on the side. Our dairy barn is a 76 tie still barn with large feed alleys and high ceilings. We also make all our feed on the farm. Our focus over the past few years has been on improving productivity and efficiency in the barn, with goals of growth in the future. In efforts to diversify our income we have also purchased a few rental properties along the way.

On the farm, Joe takes care of the day-to-day management and Jen takes care of the finances, rentals and anything else Joe needs in the barn. We also have 3 part-time employees that help with milking and other tasks.

While we have been growing our farm, our family has also grown over the years. We have 5 awesome children, 4 daughters and a foster son. They love farm life as much as we do! For us, being here as a family is everything, its more than a job to us, its our way of life and we truly enjoy it.

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