Hill’s Valley Farm was founded in 1959 by Roland and Onalee Hill. They sold the farm to their son Richard, and his wife Donna, in 1979. Roland continued to help with field work for many years. Roland’s FFA project was a Brown Swiss heifer, which ultimately led to today’s current herd of Brown Swiss. He passed away in August, 2017 at the age of 85. Richard and Donna have been involved in the farm since 1979. They raised two sons. Derek is a high school math teacher in Hamburg. He and his wife, Michelle, have two young children, Mackenzie and Gavin. Darin and his wife, Katie, have been partners in the farm since 2008. Katie hails from Perryville, Missouri and grew up on a Brown Swiss farm. Darin and Katie have three children; Blake, Garrett and Averi. Darin graduated from Cornell and Katie from the University of Missouri. The farm currently consists of nearly 300 head of mostly purebred Brown Swiss. The herd is one of the highest Brown Swiss production herds in the country with a herd average of over 25,000 milk and 1100 pounds fat. While production is an important part of the operation, Hill’s Valley farm is likely more widely acclaimed for the herd’s type. They have shown their cattle at local, state and national shows and have received many All-American recognitions. The most notable was a homebred cow, Hills Valley Perfecta Ritz, who was intermediate champion at both Harrisburg and the World Dairy Expo in 2011. Ritz has 25 daughters and granddaughters in the herd through the use of embryo transfer and invitro fertilization. The 2017 show season resulted in being Premier Breeder at Harrisburg and 3 All –American nominations. In addition Hill’s Valley bred, raised and sold the reserve Junior Champion at Madison which has been named All-American Fall Calf. The farm owns and rents 350 acres which produces all the roughage for the farm. The ration for the milk cows is corn silage, alfalfa and grass baleage, and purchased concentrate. Field work is shared by all family members, except corn chopping, which is custom harvested. The milking herd of 150 head is housed in a compost bedded pack barn which was built in 2008. The pack is bedded with dry sawdust and is stirred daily with an s-tine cultivator and cleaned twice a year. The herd is milked in an 8 stall step –up, walk through parlor retrofitted in the old tie stall barn. In 2016, Richard and Donna were recognized as the Active Master Breeder by the national Brown Swiss Association. Richard has served as a National director for the Brown Swiss Assocaition as well as Vice President. Richard has judged all 6 of the Brown Swiss National Shows including Madison in 2013. He currently serves on the FSA county committee and the board of directors of Upstate- Niagara Coop. Darin and Katie have been very active in the Cattaraugus County Farm Bureau. Darin currently serves as President and Katie is on the Pro-Ed Committee and is District 1 representative on the State Young Farmer and Ranchers Committee. They were the winners of the 2017 Young Farmers Achievement Award for New York State Farm Bureau.
