Small scale dairy farming is a labor of love

By Kayte Young,

Leo Paes

Published August 22, 2025 at 3:44 PM EDT

Two light-skinned men in plaid shirts standing outside with a brown cow. Grass, a tree line with bare trees, blue sky and a white barn are visible in the background. — Jason "Smiley" Scott and James Farmer of Twin Springs Creamery—pictured here with Jersey cow, Daisy on a November day in 2024.

“I remember in Covid, Sarah, she went to the grocery on her way home, on a Friday, to get milk and some other things--basically when Covid was shuttin’ everything down–and there was chocolate almond milk. And that was it.

I’m a pretty big fan of food independence and food sovereignty and having control over your food system and choice over the food that you want. And seeing it not available because of supply chain issues was part of it. There’s gotta be a local option for milk. I just think there needs to be as long as we’re consuming milk and it’s part of our culture, we need to have a local option.”

This week on the show we visit Twin Springs Creamery. We talk with James Farmer, Jason “Smiley” Scott, and Stacey Decker— about the hard work and the joy of working with dairy cows, and what it takes to bring local milk to Southern Indiana.

Light skinned woman in knit hat and plaid shirt pouring milk from a metal pail into a large metal funnel. — After milking two cows, Stacey Decker pours the milk from the pail into the hopper for the chiller.

Twin Springs Creamery is a multi-family dairy operation in Western Monroe County. They opened their doors in December of 2024, distributing fresh, grade-A fluid milk to stores, farm stops and now bakeries (like Two Sticks, Muddy Fork, and Gables Bagels). The milk arrives on store shelves within a few days of being milked. The milk is “cream top” and they offer varieties such as chocolate milk, strawberry milk and Yule Nog around the winter holidays.

light-skinned woman in glasses, plaid shirt and rubber work boots--squatting, reaching (with a dark jar) under a cow towards the udders. — Stacey Decker prepares Dallas' udders for milking using an iodine dip to sterilize each teat.

Twin Springs is a small scale dairy farm (they were milking around 9 cows when I interviewed them), the cows graze on pasture as the seasons permit, with frequent rotation to offer quality forage for the cows.

Light-skinned woman in glasses, plaid shirt, squatting and attaching (with latex gloved hand) a metal apparatus to a cow's udders for milking. — Stacey Decker attaches "the claw" to begin milking Dallas (the cow). The milk then goes to the bulk tank where it is chilled right away. Next, it is pasteurized, chilled again, and then bottled and delivered to shops.

I spoke with co-owners James Farmer and Smiley Scott, about the early days and operational details of the creamery. I also followed Stacey Decker around one evening in February while she milked cows, and returned another day to get in her way during chocolate milk bottling.

Brown cow in grass in front of a white barn, a light-skinned woman with orange hair, headphones and recording equipment is bending forward and reaching an arm out towards the cow. — Kayte Young tries to make friends with Daisy during a winter visit to Twin Springs Creamery.

They all talked about the special relationship that dairy farmers build with the cows, and how that keeps the work fulfilling, and always interesting.

Music on this Episode:

The Earth Eats theme music is composed by Erin Tobey and performed by Erin and Matt Tobey.

Additional music on this episode from Universal Production Music.

Credits:

The Earth Eats’ team includes: Eoban Binder, Alex Chambers, Toby Foster, Luann Johnson, Leo Paes, Samantha Shemenaur, Payton Whaley and Harvest Public Media.

Earth Eats is produced, engineered and edited by Kayte Young. Our executive producer is Eric Bolstridge.