Jeremiah Roller is doing what his family has always done
SPARTA, MO. – Jeremiah Roller of Sparta, Mo. has always been a dairy farmer, just like his father, grandfather and his great-grandfather before him. For many years, his family milked 100 to 160 dairy cows on the farm where he and his wife, Brandy live now and like so many other Ozark dairy farmers, they sold their milk to DFA, Dairy Farmers of America.
In 2015, they got out of the dairy farming business. Then in February 2024, Jeremiah told Brandy how much he missed the cows and missed milking and that he wanted to go back to it.
He laughed. “She thought I was crazy.”
Today, he and Brandy live on the Roller Dairy Farm, 75 acres in Christian County, the same farm where his parents, and his grandparents, once lived and milked. Jeremiah milks 20 Jersey cows every day and sells raw milk from their farm. They have a small store building that they keep stocked with raw milk, cream, beef, pork, bacon, beef tallow, lard, chicken, raw honey and eggs. In addition to their dairy herd, they raise pigs and chickens. Jeremiah also raises 80 beef Simmental-Angus crossbred cattle, in partnership with his grandmother, Violet Roller on another nearby 200 acre farm.
Depending on the season, they have also offered flavored coffee creamer, made with their own raw cream, like pumpkin spice and brown sugar vanilla.
“We have 600 Rhode Island Red laying hens and 10 sows that are Hereford-Berkshire cross. We also have 50 to 60 feeder pigs at all times,” he continued. “Right now we have the chickens in pastures around the chicken barn and we move them every day. We are in the process of developing a mobile type of unit. We do a lot of rotational grazing and are basically a grass-based operation. I feed some non-GMO grain but I do my best to keep everything as organic as possible. Everything we offer for sale here, we raise on our farm with the exception of the honey and it comes from another local farm.”
The bottom line is that Jeremiah stays more than busy with all that he has going on, on his farm but he is not complaining.
“It’s a lot of work and time-consuming what with washing the jars, bottling the milk and all the rest but I have more control than when we did the milking in years past. It is more enjoyable and frankly, more profitable. We raise a big garden so in the summertime, we also have fresh produce available. I take two cows and two hogs to be processed every three weeks. We operate on the honor system so our customers come by and put their money in the drop box and that way, it works out for everyone.”
Jeremiah and Brandy have five daughters, four of whom are grown and nine year old Lexi.
“This is what my family has always done,” Jeremiah concluded, referring all the way back to his great-grandfather, Jamie Roller who was also a dairy farmer. “We so appreciate our customers today who make this all possible because I still love it!”
