​Havemeister Dairy is located in Palmer, Alaska and has been in existence since 1935. Family owned and operated for over 80 years, Havemeister farm is the only Colonist era dairy farm still in operation today. In 2012, they opened their own on farm creamery and produce Grade A milk, half n half, and cream. We take great pride in supporting this local Alaskan dairy for our scratch-made ice cream mix.

History
In 1935, during the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt offered families from the hardest-hit areas of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan a chance to start fresh in a new land, Alaska. The federal government sent more than 200 families north to the fertile soils of the Matanuska Valley. They called it the Matanuska Colony, and it put Palmer on the map as an agricultural economy.
Arnold and Emma Havemeister, along with their daughter, Helen, were one of those families. Each family drew lots for 40 acre tracts in the Matanuska on May 23, 1935.

The Havemeister’s drew tract #167 and moved into a one bedroom house on their new farm Christmas Day of that year. Two more children, Annie and Bob, were born to the Havemeister’s.

After Arnold’s sudden death in 1942, Emma and the children kept the farm going, selling produce from their garden and milk from their cows. Bob and his wife, Jean, still live in the original colony house and work the dairy farm with the help of family and a few employees.

There are 150 cows in the rotating heard on the Havemeister farm. 80 cows are milked twice a day with a rolling herd average of 23,000 lbs. per year. The heard is fed around 10 lbs. of grain per day, per cow, along with hay harvested from the 400 acres of land the Havemeisters work every year. 170 acres belonging to Bob and Jean and the rest rented near the farm. The herd is artificially inseminated using All West/Select Sires. All replacement animals are born and raised on the farm.

Milk Processing
In 2012 the Havemeister’s decided to start selling their milk under their own name, they had always sold their raw milk to creameries to be processed and sold to stores. The family worked together to build an efficient processing and bottling plant on their farm. Milk is currently processed 3-4 times a week. They currently offer hormone free, non-fat, 2% and whole milk, half n’ half and cream. All which is pasteurized, homogenized and bottled on site. Their products are available in stores from Anchorage to Talkeetna, used exclusively in many local coffee shops and used to make ice cream mix for local ice cream shops in Alaska.

Website: http://havedairy.com/
Physical Address: 7955 Bogard Road, Palmer, AK 99645