While already operating a successful logging company in 1999, Darrell and Kim Javorek decided to take on an additional challenge by purchasing the family farm from Darrell’s dad.

Purchasing the family farm, which had sat idle for a couple of years, wasn’t necessarily the original plan the couple had, but they had a good reason for their action.

Darrell said his dad was going to start splitting the farm into pieces and selling it. That’s something Darrell said he just couldn’t bear to see.

“So, we bought cows,” Darrell said.

The cows didn’t come right away, though, as the couple spent a year updating the farm in preparation for cows. The tie-stalls in the barn were replaced, and a milking parlor was added.

“We remodeled it and got our first batch of cows out of Canada,” Darrell said. “Those were hard to come by back then, so we bought a herd of registered Holsteins out of Canada. That was the foundation for the herd.”

They milked cows for the first time on the updated farm in May of 2000, with 80 cows in the herd.

It was the start of a new chapter for the family farm, which originally began around 1918 when Darrell’s grandpa settled on the land the farm sits on, after immigrating from Slovakia. Darrell’s dad eventually took over the farm before Darrell and Kim purchased it.

Kim said several Czechoslovakian families settled in the area, including her great grandparents and grandparents.

Not only does the current family farm, known as Johnson Creek Dairy, include the original farm that Darrell’s grandpa started, it also includes land that was purchased from Kim’s family.

“Like I said, I wanted the land to stay in the family,” Darrell said. “Then we bought her grandpa’s farm. That land, some of it has been in the family for more than 100 years.”

Kim said her great grandparents settled that land around 1910.

“The last thing I’d ever want to do is sell the land,” Kim said.

The farm consists of just shy of 500 acres, of which, 150 are tillable acres. They rent land from neighbors, though, so around 1,300 acres are planted with crops each year.

Since 1999, Darrell and Kim have increased the number of cows on the farm. The first increase saw the cow total increase to 200, which was later increased to its current number of a little more than 400 cows.

Darrell said increasing the size of the herd those two times was necessary for the survival of the farm.

With 400 milking cows, the farm also has around 450 heifers and calves.

Darrell and Kim employ 10 people who work on the farm.

“We wouldn’t still be doing it (farming) without our workers,” Kim said.

It’s no secret that technology has rapidly changed all of society, and farming has not been immune from the rapid changes. This has led to the formation of “mega” farms.

“It’s amazing what we’ve seen change,” Kim said.

Darrell added, “We weren’t a huge farm, but one of the bigger farms when we started. Now we’re one of the smaller farms.”

They may have a smaller farm when compared to some of today’s farms, but that doesn’t make the history or success of the farm any less remarkable.

“It’s been a good ride. It (farming) gets in your blood,” Darrell said.