Our Story
We
are very proud to present our farm, Habeck Dairy, and future dairy
processing plant, Black Hills Milk. We are a third generation
family farm and intend to continue this tradition as we feel God has
gifted the land and livestock to our care.
The declining number of dairy farms in western Dakota from lack of processing plants has left our community with no fresh dairy product, not to mention the loss of income these farms once generated for our western South Dakota area. Our farms have been faced with a very high transportation cost to ship milk 265 miles away only to have it processed, packaged, and hauled back to western South Dakota for consumption. (go figure!) Because we feel that people deserve the option to have fresh local dairy products, we are in the beginning stages of our plans to process milk in western South Dakota. We will keep you updated on the progress!
My
name is John. This is our family; my wife and companion, Dawn,
JaeLyn (assistant calf feeder & milker), and JoAnna, our youngest
who helps with everything. Our oldest daughter, Jessica, used to
work in the dairy daily, but she is now married with two children,
and lives on the Tauck/Stoltz place, and but still comes over to
help in the dairy barn. The next daughter, Jacque, also married, has
moved away from Belle Fourche, but when she was home she also worked
on the farm and in the dairy.
We are the Habecks.
History
1959: Jerry and Patricia Habeck(parents of
John) began dairy farming in Norman County, Minnesota milking five
Holstein cows.
1977: Mike Habeck, (eldest son) took over the dairy operation, and
Jerry and Patricia moved to another farm to raise beef cattle and
farm a variety of crops.
1980: Jerry and Patricia Habeck moved to the Black Hills of South
Dakota to continue beef ranching in the High Pines southwest
of Belle Fourche, SD on part of the same land that Habeck Dairy now
operates.
1988: John and Dawn were married and began farming east of Belle
Fourche on Ellie and Chico Priewe’s(Dawn’s Grandfather and
Father) irrigated farm. We milked a cow and goats by hand.
1990: Jerry & Patricia, John (youngest son ) and Dawn Habeck formed
Habeck Dairy LLP and began milking 55 dairy cows on a rented farm in
Spearfish, South Dakota (the Humphrey Dairy) and continued raising
feed on the Priewe farm, east of Belle Fourche.
1992: Jim Habeck became a partner in Habeck Dairy. (125dairy cows)
1994: Habeck Dairy built a new “state of the art” dairy milking
complex on the High Pines Ranch. Mike and Mary Habeck joined Habeck
Dairy and we continued milking, ranching, and raising kids. (225
dairy cows)
1996: Mike and Mary Habeck and Jim Habeck retired from the dairy
partnership and formed Habeck Trucking.
2002: Jerry and Patricia retired from the dairy partnership and
formed Habeck Red Angus Ranch. John and Dawn continued milking with
daughters Jessica, Jaque, JaeLyn & JoAnna.(340 dairy cows)
2008 : Habeck Dairy and Dunn Dairy formed a trucking company (Dunn & Habeck Farms) to haul our combined milk to a cheese processing plant, due to the closure of the fluid plant in Rapid City.
2009: Habeck Dairy sold 320 cows and began
plans to process and bottle our own milk from remaining young stock,
forming Black Hills Milk.
Accomplishments & Awards
- 1969: Jerry & Paticia Habeck were nominated
Outstanding Young Farmers of the Year in Norman County of
Minnesota.
- 2004 : John & Dawn Habeck won Outstanding Ag
Family of the Year in the
- Between 1959 & 2009 Habeck Dairy has had
numerous quality milk awards.
- Jerry Habeck served on several
agricultural boards during his years in farming .
- Dawn Habeck has been on the Midwest Dairy
Association board for a number of years
promoting and educating consumers as to the benefits of dairy
foods.
- John & Dawn have spent many hours and took several road trips learning about on farm milk processing over the past 3 or 4 years.
