New Horizon Farms: where a 16-year-old's question saves her family's farm and Jackie Bickel and daughter Maggie explain crafting their product and even trash talk some cow breeds
Season 2 - Episode 1
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (00:00):
Today we're gonna have a conversation with a farmer and her teenage daughter, who are two key parts of the family owned New Horizon Farm and Dairy, as well as Happy Cows Creamery. They're in southwest Ohio, located about halfway between Cincinnati and Columbus. And as they so eloquently put it, the milk you get from them today was just grass two days ago. But it almost didn't happen. If not for a business plan that was drawn up by a 16-year-old girl, the farm would've likely suffered the same fate as the dozen other dairy farms around him, which have gone out of business in the past 10 years. Welcome back for the second season of the podcast. I am so excited to share the Bickel story with you today.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (00:40):
Welcome to More Than a Mile, a local food podcast from Market Wagon focused on connecting you to local food through farmer stories from across America. I'm Nick Carter, your host, a farmer and CEO and co-founder of Market Wagon. We are your online farmers market with a mission to enable food producers to thrive in their local and regional markets. Food is so much more than just nutrients and calories. It's actually the fabric that holds us together. Thanks for joining me for this episode of More Than a Mile, and thank you for buying local food. That's one critical step in making an investment in food for future generations. I am really excited today to be joined by Jackie Bickel and Maggie Mathews. We are gonna be talking about what turns out to be a story of kind of how a teenager's question and ambitious business plan, breathe new life, and another generation into a family farm. With now the expectation that it becomes a third generation farm. So welcome to the podcast, Jackie, More than a mile, New Horizon farm.
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (01:43):
Yes.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (01:43):
Yeah. So this was started by your father-in-law, right? Almost 60 years ago?
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (01:48):
Yes, it'll be 60 years next year.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (01:51):
Okay. And while for over half a century he operated the farm under normal business conditions, it sounds like in the last decade or so, things really, really changed. Right?
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (02:04):
They did. For decades, my father-in-law, my husband and his two brothers operated essentially a commercial dairy farm where we shipped our milk through a co-op. They came and picked it up by the semi-load every other day. We received pay based on the hundred pound weight, which was established by, you know, federal order. And about 10 years ago, the milk industry went upside down for a variety of reasons. Consumer demand declines, commercial dairies kept getting bigger, family farms kept getting smaller. And with the economy the way that it was, we, at one point we were receiving payment for our milk t hat was the same payment my father-in-law was receiving back in the 1980s. So
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (02:57):
Wow. That's not how that's supposed to go
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (02:57):
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (03:22):
Now the whole, was the whole family aware? Was this a family affair and family conversations around what could happen with the farm?
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (03:29):
Well, in 2015, my father-in-law retired and he passed the operation down to my husband. So we rent the land off of the family partnership and we still operate the dairy. 2015 prices were great. It was shortly after that where it started the downturn and we did have conversations with my father-in-law. He didn't wanna see it happen. We were looking for other alternatives. We downsized the herd. We started renting out part of our tillable ground to other area farms to farm themselves to keep our expenses down. And it just, it wasn't gonna work. And Maggie came home from an FFA field trip one day. She was on the dairy judging team, and she's like, I have an idea. And of course, we were not interested because we were very focused on what we were going to do.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (04:29):
And she was 16 years old at the time, right?
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (04:33):
Yep. Just turned 16.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (04:34):
Yeah. Was, was there an aspect of let the adults in the room figure this out?
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (04:41):
You know, my husband is very hardheaded and I can publicly say that because he's very proud of his hardheadedness. And you know, all he's ever known is milking cows, you know, twice a day. This is how we've done it, this is how my father's done it. And getting outside of that box and looking at other alternatives I know is very scary for him. We've only been married for 10 years. I bring a little bit more outside experience, but he's only worked on the farm. That's all he knows. So it was it was a tough sell at first
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (05:16):
Maggie. So 16 years old, you go to your parents with a new business idea. Where, where did this inspiration come from? How did you come up with the idea?
Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (05:24):
So, as she said, I was on our dairy judging team, which included going out to multiple farms during the season, judging other people's cows off of a point system basically. So I just kind of like, I liked the idea. The family was also local and was related to my science teacher as well. And we were doing business plans in ag class one day, and my group partners didn't do their half. So I ended up doing the entire project by myself,
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (05:57):
And so I used to love group projects. I was the other one. Same
Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (06:02):
No, I was always the one that did all of the work, which I was fine with it cuz then it, like I got to control how it was done. But I kind of just like fooled around and made a little business plan, like just for the school project after going on the FFA trip. And I was like, Yeah, this actually could be a real thing. Like this could be legit if we put the, put the time and the statistics and everything else into it.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (06:27):
So Maggie, you've gotta convince your dad to change the way that he's been farming. Was that easy to do?
Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (06:35):
It was definitely a challenge because not only was it just this silly little business plan I made in FFA class, but I'm also a young woman in the industry who doesn't have nearly as much experience as he does. So it was nagging at him more so than anything else. Just continuously bringing it up and putting the, planting the seed in his mind of there is another option that isn't getting rid of what you've worked your entire life towards. So it was hard, but it was worth it.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (07:06):
When do you think that turning point was? What do you think finally flipped a switch for him to say, Let's give this a shot.
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (07:13):
I was a phone call,
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (07:15):
It was a phone call. Jackie was a phone jumps in. It sounds like you remember where you were when this took place.
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (07:21):
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (08:20):
He was going to keep bottling. And that just set my husband back to square one and I'm like, No, no, no, no, no. We've got a plan. We know what we have to do. We know what we have to buy, let, we're gonna keep on going. And it took us a few more months to source the different equipment from another producer and to get where we needed to be cuz we were going back to square one. I told him that, don't let the roadblock stop us. You know, we just need to go around it and keep moving forward. So it took us a little longer than what we had anticipated, but we did find other equipment and we were ready to start rolling right in the middle of the pandemic,
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (09:06):
Right in the middle of the pandemic. So you find the equipment, you raise the money to be able to buy this equipment. So on a farm that's already struggling to make money, you raise more money to invest in something new. Was that hard? How did you do that?
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (09:22):
Well, the the producer was bottling milk and making ice cream in Indiana. He heard about our story, I shared with him our struggles and he said, You know what, I will give you this equipment through a milk assignment, which meant that each month when we shipped our milk, a portion of our check was going to him.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (09:46):
So he basically invested in it?
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (09:49):
Correct. Wow. Cause he liked, he liked the business plan, he liked what the numbers looked like, he was confident that we would be able, you know, to pull it off. And, you know, we're sitting here essentially debt free with our bottling operation right now
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (10:06):
At the core of local food is relationships and community and that story just punctuates it so well. You mentioned the pandemic a minute ago. It couldn't have been just you guys who were feeling this pinch. What happened to the other farmers that, you know, in the area?
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (10:22):
Well, here in Clinton County, Ohio where our farm is, we have gone from 12 dairies to our farm being the only dairy left in the county. And when it got down to one or two dairies, it just made the cause even greater for us to want to succeed so that there was still a local dairy here in our community.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (10:43):
So it's, it's late 2019. You've got your paperwork submitted, you're waiting for the great state of Ohio to approve you to sell milk and bottles. Right. What happens next?
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (10:54):
Well the first thing that we did was we established a relationship with Market Wagon and we started to sell meat, eggs, baked goods because we knew that was the venue we were going to use to sell our milk, but we
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (11:14):
Wait, wait, wait. So you did this on Market Wagon, you started selling on Market Wagon, not milk though. You started selling anything else that you or
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (11:20):
Freezer meat
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (11:21):
Because your milk permit hadn't come in yet.
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (11:23):
Correct.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (11:24):
So you just started bootstrapping it.
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (11:30):
Yes. Yes. And we're like we need to get our name out there, we need to establish ourselves as a vendor so that when this comes to fruition it's going to be a very easy introduction to our customer base. And, it was even with the pandemic, it was.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (11:47):
Wow. Okay. So when did you sell your first bottle of milk?
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (11:53):
That would've been May 4th, 2020.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (11:59):
May 4th, 2020.
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (12:05):
Yes.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (12:07):
How many head of cattle did you have at the time?
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (12:10):
At the time we were milking about 50 head of Ayrshires and Holsteins. And we probably had another 75, 80 fresh young heifers
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (12:21):
Ready to get going. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (12:27):
We have not. Okay. But we barely ship milk out bulk anymore cuz we were still shipping milk through the co-op while we were bottling milk.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (12:38):
So let's talk about that a little bit. I understand what you mean. Co-Op selling wholesale by the pound versus bottling on farm. A lot of our listeners might not understand the difference. So explain the typical dairy that doesn't sell on Market Wagon. What are, you mentioned at the very beginning you were selling by the hundred weight, it's a price set down by the USDA, right? Correct. And it's a commodity price, so Yes. Just like stocks can go up and down, price of milk can go up and down, right?
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (13:08):
Absolutely.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (13:09):
And you're basically told this is how much money you can get for your milk?
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (13:13):
Yes.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (13:15):
And did you say it was 2016 when you were getting the same amount as the eighties?
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (13:21):
Yes. Okay.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (13:23):
So to bottle on farm, you're now the master of your own domain, right?
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (13:32):
Yes.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (13:32):
What does a gallon of milk sell for on Market Wagon?
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (13:37):
On Market Wagon, our regular milk sells for $5. Our flavored milk sells for $6.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (13:46):
So that is a better price than organic milk at the grocery store?
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (13:50):
Yes.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (13:51):
And it's straight off of your farm?
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (13:54):
Yes. It is literally grass two days before we put it in the customer's bag.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (14:00):
It is grass. Two days before. Yes. That mama cow turns it into milk and goes right into the customer's bag. I love that. That's a great timeline. That's a good way to think of it. Yes. Now the other thing that our listeners will probably have a hard time translating is hundred weight. You got paid what, 12 to $13 for a hundred pounds of milk?
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (14:21):
In 2015 when we took over the operation, we were getting about $26 per hundred weight. Okay. Within eight months we were getting $15 per hundred weight,
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (14:35):
$15 per hundred weight. Mm-Hmm.
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (14:45):
So a gallon of milk weighs roughly eight pounds.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (14:51):
A gallon of milk, 8 pounds. So about 12? Yes. About about 12 gallons. Mm-Hmm.
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (15:03):
But we didn't get the whole buck because once take out
Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (15:07):
That's what I wanted to chime into really quick. So I'm going to school in Cincinnati and a lot of the girls I go to school with don't have a lot of agriculture knowledge cuz they just haven't grown up around it. And I brought milk in the other day for them to try and I was explaining prices to them. And I think the biggest misunderstanding of milk prices is at that barrier because for example, when you go to the grocery store, I don't know what's a gallon of milk now, I don't think I've bought one in three years. Like
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (15:42):
I'm sure I would hope not.
Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (15:45):
We'll say $2, we'll say a gallon of milk at the store is $2. And then you come to our farm and a gallon of milk is $5. And the immediate question is, why is a local product costing more locally than it is at the store? And the biggest thing is there we are getting that entire $5. That $5 goes for our manufacturing, our processing, our advertising, our marketing, our livelihood. Like we get all of that $5, whereas in the store they're stretching $2 to the milk hauler, the farmer, the processing, the packaging, the product, the marketing, the advertising, the hauling the milk, the getting it to the stores, paying the stores. So you're essentially stretching $2 to about 10 different people that are relying on that money. And that is why so many dairy farms were going out of business is because that is just not, that's not an attainable price to keep for today's inflation especially. So the two to $5 difference is because we're actually getting that entire $5 and that is why our farm is still around and we can still offer that product to people.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (16:59):
And you're raising a product that people can trust and they know that, like you mentioned Jackie, it's grass, right? Yes. Not corn or silage. And the way that you're raising the animals, the way that you're treating your livestock, they can come out and see it. They can know who you are. Absolutely. And you said a couple of dollars, Maggie, but that's the commodity milk at a grocery store that's least cost providers. What your milk compares to is premium grass fed or some of the organic lines which are six, seven, $8 a gallon. So apples to apples, it's a competitive price. And I think the other thing that a lot of people may realize if they've heard the term loss leader is that grocery stores may actually be motivated to not even make any money on that milk and sell it for cost or nearly over cost. Because that's what brings people into the store and then they'll sell the other things. That's where they make their profit. Mm-Hmm.
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (18:14):
We have chocolate, strawberry mocha, vanilla cake, chocolate peanut butter cookies and cream orange creamsicle. We are getting ready to do eggnog through the rest of the year Yeah. For the holidays. And then we'll have specials here and there, special flavors that we'll do for limited times as well.
Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (18:38):
Don't forget root beer.
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (18:40):
Oh yes. Root beer floats.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (18:41):
Root beer float. Wow. And you mentioned a moment ago, you're milking Ayrshires, is that right?
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (18:48):
Ayrshires and Holsteins.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (18:49):
Ayrshires and Holsteins. Okay. Mm-Hmm.
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (18:57):
Well, my husband grew up on a Holstein farm and so they were very established as premier breeders here in Ohio. And when he and I were married 10 years ago, the girls and I had Ayrshires. So,
Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (19:11):
And one Guernsey, we can't forget my little baby Guernsey.
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (19:15):
And one Guernsey. So part of the dowry was he had to accept our Ayrshires and here we are today with oh, there's probably 35% of the herd is Ayrshires now.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (19:30):
Hey Maggie, do you still have that Guernsey?
Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (19:34):
Unfortunately I don't, She was my first animal though. She was a surprise and her name was Maggie. I didn't even name her and she was like my favorite cow ever. She kind of beat me up in the show ring though. Like, I could not control her to save my life. But she is my favorite cow ever. I'll never own a Guernsey ever again because they're not, they're not all there. But Guernseys hold a very special place in my heart because that was my first ever cow.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (20:05):
So you were, did you show in 4H fairs or other show circuits?
Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (20:10):
So I've shown collectively at the local level, at county fairs, state level, national level and international level. So I've been to Louisville, Kentucky. What else? We go to state fair every year. I've shown at Wisconsin, World Dairy Expo, which is actually going on right now.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (20:33):
Ok
Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (20:33):
Then I also show livestock
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (20:34):
Your show animals, are they part of the production herd there at New Horizon Dairy?
Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (20:39):
Yes. Yeah. Our show girls as we like to call them, are also our working girls. So they do a little bit of everything
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (20:49):
That's really cool. A lot of people might not realize that the show circuit in several species, there's been a divergence between the traits that are needed in the show ring and the traits that actually are meaningful in production. But not so in dairy, right?
Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (21:07):
Correct.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (21:08):
I showed Jerseys by the way, so,
Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (21:10):
Oh gosh.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (21:12):
Hey, hey.
Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (21:13):
I don't like Jerseys.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (21:15):
You don't like jerseys? All right, well we're just gonna end the show right now. I'm just kidding. Why don't you like Jerseys?
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (21:21):
I show livestock too, so I quite literally show everything like lambs, goats, pigs. Like I understand.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (21:31):
We've got Boer-Nubian cross goats on our farm right now and there's a 4H kid nearby. You can't give facial expressions. It's a great face for radio Maggie. Everyone sees how pleased you are with my Boer-Nubian cross. I'm getting insulted by a college kid on my farming practices right
Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (21:47):
Nubians freak me out because they don't have ears.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (21:50):
Nubians freak you out cuz their eyes go in different directions
Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (21:53):
And they don't have ears. Am I thinking of the right dairy goat?
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (21:57):
You're thinking of, no.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (21:58):
No, you are not thinking of the right dairy goat. No, I thought you showed livestock, Maggie.
Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (22:04):
Not dairy goats. They freak out. They freak me out so much, but I didn't like jerseys because I had a bad experience with one
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (22:12):
I think you had a bad experience with a Guernsey, but she still loved her.
Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (22:14):
Yeah, because her name was Maggie and she is like the best cow ever.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (22:18):
Oh, well I had a cow named Maggie. I didn't, I just made that up. But I wanted you to love my Jerseys
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (22:23):
We do Jerseys in the herd.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (22:26):
Jerseys are a really good source of butter fat.
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (22:27):
Yes, we do have Jerseys in the herd now.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (22:31):
Yeah. If you want that good rich milk, you gotta have some jerseys in the herd to add that butter fat, right? Yes. Yep.
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (22:37):
Correct.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (22:38):
Yeah. So that was a fun little detour to most of our listeners were like, why are they trash talking about cow breeds? I don't understand
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (23:03):
Yes.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (23:04):
Yeah.
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (23:06):
We grow, we grow our own feed, we harvest our own hay. We know everything that it took to make that bottle of milk. Yeah. So when a customer asks, we're very confident everything came from the farm and it does give that consumer a peace of mind when they are looking to support local. And you know, food source is important for a lot of people. They wanna know where, where their food is coming from and that it's safe
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (23:38):
Trust in our food supply is at an all time low because most of what you find at the supermarket, there's no way for you to really know how it was grown or where it came from.
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (23:47):
Right,
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (23:48):
Right. On Market Wagon, do you get customers asking you questions? I mean, do they engage with you, chat with you?
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (23:54):
Yeah. Yes. Well we have to remind the customers, because our milk is non homogenized, which means the cream is still in it. Mm-Hmm.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (24:25):
That is really cool. That is very cool.
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (24:28):
We turned it off one week to go to state fair and we had a customer call the hub manager concerned, where are they? Where am I gonna get my milk at? So we don't turn it off anymore. We figure out a way to get it to the hub even if we can't be there.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (24:42):
Yeah. Showing animals isn't nearly as important as feeding people, right, Maggie? Correct.
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (24:47):
Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (24:49):
Well,
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (25:00):
Well it sounds like on this farm your opinion matters a lot because you get the credit for creating a business that's now feeding thousands of people and keeping the farm alive for another generation. Are you gonna come back and farm Maggie?
Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (25:13):
Eventually. so my little brother is seven. Yeah. We have a 12 year age gap, so I'm hoping, and Donald's getting a little senile as I'd like to say. So I'm hoping I get to branch off and do my original business plan and I'm hoping to be able to retire from my career by 45. I'm gonna manifest it and then I can come back. Yeah, I saw the face you just made. I'm a very driven person and I feel like, we made vision board at school the other day. I feel like if I really put my mind to it, I can do it.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (25:50):
I believe every word that you just said. At 16 years old, you came up with a business plan to save the family farm. You can retire by 45
Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (25:57):
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (26:10):
The important thing is that, I have kids as well, and it was a big thing for me to save our family farm. That's the backstory here for me and Market Wagon. But it's not that I know my kids are going to farm cuz they might not. They have their own, just like you, you have your own aspirations, they're their own people, but that they could if they wanted to. Because when I was 18, it wasn't really a choice. If I had wanted to farm as a career, I couldn't have. And so over the last 20 years I've changed that, on our farm and I'm trying to help other farmers just like you do the same thing. So that when your little brother decides what he wants to do when he grows up, that farming is an option and he can choose to stay where his roots are at and make a living. Yeah. That's very cool.
Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (26:58):
So that gets really interesting for me because I have a few friends that are like, well we'll call this friend Joe, so Joe,
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (27:09):
Don't worry Maggie. I'm pretty sure Joe's not gonna listen to my podcast.
Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (27:12):
I don't know, I don't know. Joe might. Okay. But Joe came to pick up a pig with me one time and Joe now wants to farm and it's not as easily accessible for people that are like Joe and have not grown up around it and have never done it and have to quite literally learn everything. Whereas there's kids like me, I know some of my friends that didn't get the option to go to college because it's like the farm is here, that's what you're doing. So I'm very thankful that I do have parents that my career path right now is not necessarily being on the farm milking cows. However, I can still help in other aspects. Like I deliver our milk to Findlay market. Like I do other things that aren't directly on the farm, like feeding calves and stuff, but I'm still helping out and my parents are giving me that option. That way I don't feel like I have to stay at the farm. But if I do wanna come back to that at some point in time, that option is there for me. Whereas I have friends who don't necessarily have the option to ever farm and that's what they wanna do. I have friends that do wanna go off and go to nursing school or wanna do other things with their life, but they don't wanna have to lose their farm and they just don't have the option to leave.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (28:30):
Wow. Yeah. Farming is really the last profession that we have that's still passed down from generation to generation. Right?
Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (28:36):
Yeah, for sure.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (28:37):
Yeah.
Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (28:39):
Yeah. You can't just go to school and learn how to be a be a farmer. It's really a trade that you learn from a young age.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (28:47):
Yep. And there's not a whole lot of Indeed postings for farmers
Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (28:52):
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (29:20):
Yeah. They don't show how people get scared of Nubian goats apparently. I've never seen it
Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (29:26):
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (29:33):
We only have goats because we don't have very good pasture and the goats will eat, you know, scrub land. So
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (29:38):
Right. That's how, that's how Ayrshires are. Ayrshires will eat anything.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (29:42):
They're not as picky
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (29:43):
Nope.
Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (29:44):
I will admire your goats from afar. Okay. I will support your goats from a very, very, very large distance.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (29:53):
Okay. Thank you. That makes me feel so good. This has been a really fun conversation. It's great to meet fellow entrepreneurs. It's great to meet and it's always fun to talk to other farmers and hear your story. If people want to continue to follow you and learn more about you online, where can they do that?
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (30:10):
We are on Facebook. Our page is New Horizon Farm and Happy Cows Creamery. And we also have a website, www.happycowsatnewhorizon.com.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (30:22):
Okay. So for everybody listening at home, if you're looking to enjoy the milk that Maggie and Jackie and I have talked about here for the last half an hour, you're gonna find it online on Market Wagon and at farmers markets and under the name of Happy Cows Creamery. And that's what's gonna be on the bottle in your kitchen as you're enjoying that milk. The milk in the bottle came from their family farm that the Bickel family owns called New Horizon Dairy. So not to be confused, but when you find 'em online, New Horizon Dairy is the farm providing the milk that goes into your kitchen under the name Happy Cows Creamery Jackie. Maggie, thanks so much for coming on and just telling your story with us.
Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (30:58):
Thank you for the opportunity.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (31:06):
Thanks for listening to this episode of More Than a Mile. Be sure to sign up for Market wagon@marketwagon.com or after downloading the Market Wagon app for iOS or Android. Follow us at Market Wagon on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook for stories, recipes, special announcements news, and just digital handshakes from our friendly farming community. If you enjoyed more than a Mile, please rate the podcast and write a review on iTunes, castbox podchaser, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Thank you for continuing to support Local Food.