Green Meadow Farms turns 100 years old this year and, in their generosity, they invited everyone to the farm to celebrate. As they prepared for this day of celebration cleaning up the old barns and pulling out their historical photos and memorials of milestones, they discovered an entire side of Merle Green they had never seen before.
According to a feature in the Michigan Dairy Cattle News, Merle Green was the organization’s founding father, purchasing the original farm at 18 years old with co-signing from his father, who owned a lumberyard. He joined the Holstein Association in 1919 at the age of 14, buying his first heifer calf at 13 when the transaction - including calf shipment - was made through the mail. As they sifted through records, photos, and transactions, they found letters written by Merle for all of his livestock pursuits.
On his Greendale Stock Farm letterhead, a 14-year-old Merle Green wrote a letter to M.J. Prince in Bloomer, Wisconsin trying to sell a choice boar of the litter of his Duroc Jersey Hogs. He enclosed a pedigree of the hogs and said the mother to these boars was the best brood sow that he had ever owned, and he would sell a pick of the boars for $45.
Did this young Merle Green have any idea of the legacy he
would leave in his wake? Did he know
that Greendale Stock Farm now known as Green Meadow Farms would host a century
celebration where his efforts would be displayed, and his hard work and
tenacity admired? When he was applying for a lifetime membership to the
Holstein-Friesian Association of American on February 13, 1919, did he know
that Green Meadow Farms would be the largest Registered Holstein Herd in the
country?
As a teenager Merle had no idea he would have two sons,
Duane and Velmar who would take the leadership of the farm, have a record-holding
cow named Green Meadow Lily Pabst, be one of the first farms in the country to
install a methane digester while exhibiting champion cattle from Michigan to Tennessee
to Tulsa and every state in between.
I’m sure Merle never envisioned a governor who would celebrate
his accomplishments, a herd sire flown in from California or thousands of
visitors descending on his brick tie-stall barns to witness firsthand the
fruits of his decades of labor.
People like Merle take one step at a time as they move toward
their dream of owning a farm complete with champion livestock. They aren’t inhibited
by fear of failure. They are not limited
by their age nor are they concerned with social norms.
When I visited with Velmar at the centennial celebration, he
said there should always be something going, you can’t just stay the same as he
pointed to a piece of equipment that was the beginning of a new biodigester
with carbon credit technology. They will be one of three farms in Michigan to
install this new biodigester.
As the farm continues into the next century under the
leadership of Craig and Darcy Green, they will lead the way in adopting new
technology while remembering the value in exhibiting cattle, merchandising genetics,
and serving the industry on local boards and state associations.
Green Meadow Farms: “Where the Latch String is Always Out”
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