In honor of Mother’s Day today, we wanted to share with you a little bit about how full-time mom and full-time Horizon Organic dairy 
farmer Jenneke DeJong balances five children and full-time organic dairy farming at her family’s 1,405-acre farm in Bonanza, Oregon.
Third-generation organic dairy farmers, Jenneke and her husband Arie don’t use pesticides or herbicides, and their dairy cows freely graze in the pasture and aren’t given hormones or antibiotics. Since 2004, they have been shipping organic milk to Horizon Organic.
All five of the family’s children help out on the farm, and Jenneke says they have all learned – and are still learning – to do every job, from feeding the calves and the cows, taking them out to pasture, helping with farm chores, and assisting with paperwork and bookkeeping and more.
Jenneke says this hands-on approach teaches her children a good work ethic and the most important values in life – integrity, honesty, teamwork, and problem-solving. “They grew up with the idea that everybody works together to get the job done, and get it done right,” she says. Jenneke thoroughly enjoys her job as a mother and an organic dairy farmer, and even more so, appreciates that she can share her livelihood with her family.
Happy Mother’s Day to Jenneke DeJong and all the other hardworking mother’s out there who inspire us daily.
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