A big week at the farm
Three of the heifers — Falyn, Ellie Mae, and Skittles — say hello.
Hello Skyview Friends!
For those we have not yet met, we are Derrick and Jessica Crozier. Today marked the start of our first full week as the new owners of Skyview Farm & Creamery, and it feels both exciting and a little surreal to be writing those words. We are incredibly grateful for the warm welcome that many of you have already shown our family.
It’s been a big week at the farm. In addition to closing, we graduated four pregnant heifers and moved them in with the main herd. Darcy is getting close to her due date and is really rounding out. And for the most part, the cows don’t seem to mind the change — except Candy and Casey both decided they didn’t know how to come into the milking parlor for a few days. (I blame the heifer energy. It has them all a bit wiley.)
All in all, the transition of the busy has gone smoothly, but as with any big transition, we experienced a few hiccups. If you had a payment card saved in Local Line, you might need to re-add your information. (Payment security didn’t let us transfer card information when we switched business accounts.) Also - I can’t email out the newsletter just yet. Did you know it can take up to 7 days to transfer domains between owners? We learned that this week. We should be up and running again with the email newsletter next Monday.
Although we have officially taken over operations, Bill and Sheri will still be around the farm for the next couple of weeks before moving to Atchison, where they will begin their next adventure opening a new creamery alongside son and daughter-in-law, Stephen and Celia Noffke. To be honest, we’re grateful for the safety net for a couple more weeks! We know many of you have developed friendships with them over the years, so if you stop by in the coming weeks, there is still time to wish them well and thank them for everything they have built here at Skyview.
Lastly, I want to share a bit more about how we got here. Our journey to becoming dairy farmers has been quietly unfolding for the past few years. We reached a point in life where we began asking ourselves deeper questions about how we wanted to spend our time, what kind of work felt meaningful, and what sort of life we wanted to build for our family. Again and again, we found ourselves drawn back to farming, caring for animals, stewarding land, and producing good food for our community.
We are approaching this next chapter with a tremendous amount of gratitude and humility. The Noffkes have built something truly special here — not just a dairy, but a community centered around trust, hard work, and wholesome food. Our goal is not to reinvent what already works so well, but to continue caring for the animals and land in the same thoughtful way while slowly adding a few touches of our own over time.
As always, thank you for supporting local farms and local food. We firmly believe farmers are the backbone of healthy communities, and we feel deeply honored to now play a small role in continuing that tradition here at Skyview.
If you stop by the farm store in the coming weeks, please introduce yourself. We would truly love to meet you.
— Jessica Crozier