Stensland Family Farms adds tours to its offerings of milk, cheese and ice cream

At Stensland Family Farms, the dairy business is far more than just milking cows.

Sioux Falls has fallen in love with Stensland ice cream. And with supplies of the family's cheese and milk flowing into local grocery stores, Stensland is growing into a familiar name.

Doug Stensland can tell you about it. When he wears his Stensland-branded clothes out in public, they're instantly recognized.

"We're getting to the point, when we wear this, people say, 'You're the ice cream people,'" he said.

The family business just outside of Larchwood, Iowa, is looking to grow. It is adding everything from ice cream sandwiches to breaded cheese curds to sell to local restaurants.

The family added a creamery to the dairy last year, and opened up a shop in Sioux Falls to sell their products.

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Their products range from a plethora of ice cream flavors, cheeses, milk and new up: six flavors of cheese curds. Fresh, squeaky cheese, Stensland said.

"They're fresh, still warm," he said.

And people are flocking to the farm itself for tours, newly offered starting in May. The tours have become popular for groups ranging from seniors to daycares. So much so that Stensland has added several tables for a short video introduction and has set up a four-stop tour to give people an inside view of where the family's milk, cheese and ice cream come from.

The tours can fit up to 90-100 at a time, spaced out in smaller groups of 15-20. The tour is up close and personal, and isn't made for larger groups. Stensland built its operations with the idea of tours in mind, but the demand was bigger than expected.

"We built in, but we didn't build big enough," joked Stensland.

The tours view the creamery, look into the milking parlor, walk through the barn and say hello to some calves, including some hands-on hellos for the kids. 

"It's really taken off really well," Stensland said.

Inside the creamery, workers are busy bottling the dairy's milk. The creamery produces fat-free, 1 percent, 2 percent, whole, chocolate and strawberry milk. Unseen but underway is the cheese making and other production.

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Stensland talks up Stensland's use of vat pasteurization, a low-temperature method that he says produces superior tasting milk and better flavors in all the resulting products.

The entire Stensland family is involved in the business, Stensland said. The family members hvae a range of skill sets, and everyone pitches with their special knowledge.

"That's the only reason we've gotten where we've gotten," he said. 

Jason and Justin are busy in the creamery, while others run the farm and the Sioux Falls shop and marketing. But they're not the only parts of the team.

"We have seven employees. We have really good employees, and we couldn't do it without them," Stensland said.

The milking parlor is adjacent to the cow's barn, where cows line up to two robotic milkers, seeking a dispensed sweet treat.

The cows wear an electronic collar that keeps track of their health and milking patterns. If it's a cow's turn to be milked, she gets the treat to enjoy as the robotic milker takes care of the rest.

"When she walks in, it knows to drop the candy," Stensland said.

If not, the disappointed cow moves on and the next takes a turn. It's a 24-hour a day operation.

The dairy has about 150 cows, producing about 1,500 gallons of milk a day. The plant could handle four times that, Stensland said, so growth is in the air.

The barn is open to the warm summer air, with the cows lazily chewing feed, while others lay down chewing their cud, drink water or get a back scratch from several rotating brushes at back height. Underneath, a long-armed metal wand slowly sweeps under the feet of the cows, cleaning away manure to a holding pond. 

In a corner sits a small, round red-and-white robot.

"We call it R2-D2," Stensland said, for its similarity to the beloved Star Wars robot.

R2-D2 is a feed pusher. Every hour and a half, R2-D2 wakes up, and makes its way up the aisle, pushing feed toward the cattle. For now, it is charging its batteries.

The idea for everything from the manure puller to R2-D2 and the robotic milker is to remove human interaction and uncertainty from the lives of the cows.

"They like it simple and they like it the same," Stensland said. "They like boredom."

Yet outside the barn, the Stensland business is far from boring.

The family is busy doing all sorts of product development, coming up with new ways to sell their milk. One item up soon: they're perfecting a breaded cheese curd to offer for sale in restaurants.

The breading is just about right, Stensland said. 

"We 've got it down," he said. "We just haven't introduced it."

And while Stensland is already for sale in everything from grocery stores to gas stations to Juice Stops in the area, the family is looking to offer its products to additional outlets. In negotiations, distribution to a coffee chain.

"That will be a big one for us," Stensland said.

He said it giving potential buyers the dairy tour is a sure-fire way to seal the deal.

"Once they come out and see what we're all about, we can get pretty lucky and land someone," he said.

For more information on Stensland Family Farms or to schedule a tour, visit its website online at www.stenslandfamilyfarms.com, contact the dairy at 712-477-2527 or email chelsea@stenslandfamilyfarms.com.

For the Stensland Family Farms Ice Cream & Country Store at 3101 W. 41st St. in Sioux Falls, call 605-271-0833.