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Featured in Farming, Agriculture and Entrepreneurship ~ 2024

Dairy Royalty Wins National FFA Competition

SCIO, Ore. — Clancey Krahn is a 2023 National Proficiency Winner in the category of Dairy Production Entrepreneurship, but there is a lot more going on with this story. She is also an Oregon State Dairy Princess Ambassador and the National Jersey Queen! And, she is the daughter of two incredible parents!

Clancey’s story goes way back to when her older sister had been in the 4H for a couple of years and Clancey was just getting ready to start. Their parents, both with dairy backgrounds, decided that they wanted their daughters to grow up like they had. Having no farm, they moved to the small town of Scio, Oregon and purchased 5 acres. Soon, Clancey and her sister were directing the procurement of more and more cattle, and getting ever deeper into dairy cattle showing and the industry as a whole.

A few years later Clancey’s parents sat them down and said that if they were going to keep buying cattle for their small farm there would have be some profit motive. Royal Riverside Dairy was born. Today, the four of them milk 25 head of cattle, bottle their own milk and make their own flavored milks to sell to over 50 retail establishments as well as in their own farm stand. Their 4H project exploded into a big time, niched business in their local community and it set the family on a pathway into direct marketing and value adding the milk they produce at their home.

What a fantastic story!

Dairy Royalty From Western Oregon | FFA SAE Edition | Clancey Krahn | Scio High School FFA

National Proficiency Winner - Dairy Production Entrepreneurship

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Featured in Capital Press ~ March 23, 2023

Dairy Princess Continues Family Legacy

ALBANY, Ore. — As a sixth-generation dairy farmer, Clancey Krahn knows how vital it is to advocate for her industry. Farmers and ranchers currently make up about 1% of the U.S. population, according to the USDA. Krahn, 18, said it is imperative that consumers understand where their food comes from and how it is produced. “There are so many myths in the market today,” said Krahn, a senior at Scio High School in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. “It is really important that consumers are educated properly.”

Achievements

On March 7, Krahn was selected as the 2023-24 Oregon Dairy Princess Ambassador. For the next year, she will travel to schools, county fairs, summer camps and other community events across the state promoting dairy farms and products. Krahn is following in the footsteps of her mother, Amy, who was crowned dairy princess ambassador in 1996, and her older sister, Gracie, who served in 2021-22. “It’s pretty neat,” Krahn said of continuing her family’s legacy in the program. “I feel like I will be better able to serve because of that background.”

The accolades don’t stop there. She was also honored as the 2023 Star Farmer during the Oregon FFA State Convention March 16-19 in Redmond. Of roughly 15,000 FFA members statewide, only one is selected each year as the Star Farmer.

Family farm

Krahn’s passion for farming runs deep in her family. Her parents, Ben and Amy, both grew up on dairies and wanted to impart those same values on their daughters. They bought 5 acres in 2010 along the Willamette River near Albany, Ore., giving Gracie and Clancey a place where they could raise their 4-H and FFA show animals. Clancey remembers being 9 or 10 years old when Ben taught her to drive a tractor. “At the end of the day, I was pretty proficient at it,” she said.

Over the years, as Gracie and Clancey grew their dairy herd, the Krahns began bottling and selling milk to generate additional income to support the operation. Thus, Royal Riverside Farm was born. The family now milks about 25 cows twice daily, and has expanded into 50 stores around Oregon.

Milk is also sold at Royal Riverside’s farm stand, called “The Classy Cow,” with seasonal flavors including strawberry, orange creamsicle and root beer float. With Gracie off to college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Clancey is busier than ever helping in the barn and milking parlor, while also managing her own school load. “Once both of them are gone, I don’t know what Ben and I will do,” said Amy Krahn. “Obviously, we’ll keep the wheels turning.” After graduating from high school in June, Clancey said she will eventually transfer to Oklahoma State University, where she plans to double-major in agricultural communications and animal science, with a minor in agribusiness.

Princess ambassador

But first, her role as dairy princess ambassador requires a full year’s commitment, keeping her in Oregon for the time being. The Dairy Princess Ambassador Program was established by the nonprofit Oregon Dairy Women in 1959 to promote the state’s dairy industry. Oregon has 228 dairy farms and 31 processors that contribute more than $1 billion to the state’s economy annually, according to the Oregon Dairy and Nutrition Council. Clancey said her goal is to be a face for the industry, allowing people to see how farmers like herself value their cows and the environment. “Farmers and ranchers alike genuinely care about their animals, and want to be as sustainable as humanly possible,” she said.

Another key message is touting the quality of Oregon dairy products, Clancey added.

“Because of our high standards that have been put in place for generations, we are a leader in milk quality across the nation,” she said. Amy Krahn said seeing both her daughters have the opportunity to serve as dairy princess ambassadors is an amazing feeling. “It’s truly a demonstration of our commitment to the industry,” she said. “It feels so good to have that legacy, because our lives literally revolve around the dairy industry.”

Star Farmer

For her years of work on the family farm, Clancey Krahn was named Oregon FFA’s Star Farmer for 2023. “It feels pretty cool,” she said. “It’s an amazing honor to have this award. It’s so incredible that I was chosen.” Krahn first joined FFA as a seventh-grader, raising pigs, goats and cows. She and Gracie have won numerous awards at livestock shows across the country, and this November Clancey will compete for the third time at the National FFA Convention and Expo in Indianapolis, in dairy entrepreneurship. She attributes her success to her family’s mentorship, and for being taught the importance of listening.

It is that spirit that Krahn said she will carry with her as Dairy Princess Ambassador, and pursuing a career in agricultural communications. “I’m so excited to be in this position to give back to the industry, and be the best advocate I can be,” she said. “Dairy farmers across my state chose me to be in this role, and I cannot wait to represent them.”

Oregon Dairy Princess-Ambassador Program

Interested in becoming a Dairy Princess Ambassador in your community? Click the button below to learn more!

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fEATURED IN hOARD'S dAIRYMAN ~ oCTOBER 10, 2022

FIVE ACRES AND A DREAM

Not far outside of the small western Oregon city of Albany, a friendly sign edged with bright teal welcomes visitors to Royal Riverside Farm. Down the driveway, those who stop find a place to stock up on fresh milk and other local items just a few hundred feet away from the picturesque red barn where the Jersey milk is made and processed.

It’s hard to imagine that just over 12 years ago, none of this existed. Ben and Amy Krahn purchased their little farmstead “like a pig at an auction” at a foreclosure sale in 2010. “There was nothing, not even a light bulb in the house,” Amy recalled of fixing up the property.

Although it took time before the family could move in, what Ben and Amy had from the beginning was a vision for the life they wanted to give their two young daughters, Gracie and Clancey. Both dairy farm kids themselves, Ben and Amy, who met showing cows, wanted their girls to have the experience of working with animals to exhibit in youth programs. In addition to being parents, they knew the importance of developing young people from the perspective of an educator — Ben used to teach animal science and run the dairy at Oregon State University, and Amy was a college and high school teacher.

For a while, they didn’t have anywhere to make that vision work. Ben’s family farm in Wisconsin was sold when the family moved to Oregon when he was 18, and Amy’s parents turned her grandparents’ dairy into an orchard. Finding the foreclosure acres in Albany seemed like a glimmer of opportunity.

So, they fixed up the house. They put up a barn with pasture access, a 4-stall milking setup, and heifer pens around the corner. The girls poured concrete. With Gracie just starting 4-H, the timing was perfect to get some show heifers, and Clancey soon followed. The show dream was becoming a reality, and that remains true today as they have successfully exhibited at many local and national shows.

Buying property and building a barn might seem like a lot of work to put into showing cattle, and it was. But Ben and Amy didn’t just want their kids to take their animals in the ring; they wanted them to see and be a part of the everyday care that went into it. Clancey raises the heifers and keeps the milk bottling equipment sanitized. Gracie milked every night until she recently moved to continue her education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and both girls halter break every calf for showing and selling in addition to other farm jobs. “It’s teaching them those important lessons and character traits that are really hard to learn,” Amy said.

A new venture

One life lesson they learned early on, though, was that there’s a thin profit margin in showing. They needed a way to support their hobby as the herd expanded.

For years, the milk from the Krahns’ cows was fed to the show pigs they also raised. However, as Ben and Amy looked at how to make their business work, they knew there was more opportunity there and early on began discussing the idea of bottling milk. Amy’s grandparents had run a milk bottling business, so the idea of providing for their community in that way had taken root in the back of their minds. At first, though, they decided it wasn’t quite the right time.

The idea reared its head another time, and it still wasn’t a good fit. But by the third time the topic came up, they felt it was something they needed to do and decided to begin processing and marketing milk in 2018. “Probably the scariest thing for us when we first started was that initial leap of faith,” Amy said.

During the discussion stages, Ben visited other small processing facilities to get quotes and ideas. They connected with a small manufacturer to determine a plan for their system. Finally, the vat pasteurizer began running, and they had their first glass bottle of cream line milk. Now, they just had to find customers.

That didn’t turn out to be too hard for the self-described “people” people who enjoyed sharing their product with their greater community. They set up at farmers markets and were able to connect with consumers from many different backgrounds who were curious about their milk.

“It’s interesting to find a common ground because then you can talk to someone you’d probably never talk to about something you both like,” said Clancey, who often worked the farmers markets along with her dad.

“To be feet on the ground, asking questions and visiting with people, I find that fascinating,” agreed Ben of their experiences.

That friendly attitude carried over into their retail customers. Today, Royal Riverside milk is in 50 stores and coffee shops nearly all over the state, and Ben and Amy call every customer each week to talk about their order and the farm. Getting people excited about milk again is one of their goals, and the relationships they build and fun flavors they offer (from vanilla latte to peaches and cream) make it possible.

Community connections

The small nature of the Krahns’ business that allows them to call all of their customers and be flexible to their needs also turned out to be beneficial when the pandemic struck. Some customers started coming directly to the family, and although they didn’t sell milk at the farm at that time, they made it work. Their customers were very appreciative to be able to get a local product, and being so close to town made it convenient. The wheels began to turn again for the Krahns, and in contrast to the bottling, they jumped at the first opportunity to open a store at the farm.

A garden shed in front of the house was cleaned up and revamped for what has now become The Classy Cow Farmstand, where their milk is sold in addition to meats, produce, and other local items. Amy operates it each Friday and Saturday, and it’s become a regular part of many people’s weekend plans, she said.

With two former Oregon Dairy Princesses on the farm (Amy in 1996 and Gracie in 2021), it’s no surprise that the Krahns soon saw their farm stand as a perfect opportunity to show their customers what dairy farming looks like and how much farmers care about their animals. In addition to the stories and facts they share at the store and on their social media pages, farm tours have become a hit.

“It’s not just the little kids that find it interesting. A lot of time it’s the moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas that are asking questions about all of these things that we take for granted,” said Gracie, who leads many of the tours. “The impact the farm store has made and what the tours have done, not only for a handful of people but really for our whole community, is very inspiring.”

Community is what’s at the heart of everything the Krahns do, whether that’s their geographic community or their dairy, Jersey, and show families. Both girls are active with junior Jersey activities, and the farm regularly consigns animals for other breeders to develop and be successful with. “You don’t have to blow another person’s candle out to make yours shine brighter,” said Amy of their enthusiasm for their fellow Jersey breeders.

There might not have been any light bulbs in the house when they bought the property, but Royal Riverside Farm’s light is shining brightly now and pointed toward the passion that drove them to the farm — the dairy cow.

CAPITAL PRESS ~ June 7, 2021 BY: GEORGE PLAVEN

Gracie Krahn Crowned Oregon Dairy Princess

SALEM — Like mother, like daughter.

Gracie Krahn, 19, was crowned the 2021-22 Oregon Dairy Princess Ambassador on May 31. She follows in the footsteps of her mother, Amy Krahn, who was crowned in 1996.

Oregon Dairy Women, a nonprofit volunteer organization, started the Dairy Princess Ambassador program in 1959 to advocate for Oregon’s dairy industry. The Dairy Princess Ambassador travels around the state giving presentations at schools, fairs and other community events, highlighting dairy products, farming and nutritional benefits.

It is the first time in the 62-year history of the program a mother-daughter duo have served in the position, said Jessica Jansen, president of the Oregon Dairy Women.

“I think it’s really neat,” Jansen said. “It shows that multi-generational aspect of dairy farming, and being involved in the dairy community.”

For the Krahn family, dairy farming runs deep. Both Amy Krahn and her husband, Ben, were raised on dairies in Oregon and Wisconsin, respectively. In 2010, they purchased a 5-acre farm in Albany, Ore. where they milk a dozen cows and bottle their own line of non-homogenized, or “creamline,” milk.

The farm is partly a means to support their daughters’ passion for show animals. Gracie Krahn and her younger sister, Clancey, have competed in showmanship events from Madison, Wis., to Louisville, Ky. They raise their animals on the farm, and are directly responsible for their day-to-day care.

Gracie graduated from Santiam Christian High School last year, and is now attending Linn-Benton Community College, where she studies animal sciences. She was also previously crowned the 62nd National Jersey Queen by the American Jersey Cattle Association in early 2020 — another post whose duties include dairy advocacy and education.

Upon being crowned Oregon Dairy Princess Ambassador, Krahn received $3,000 in scholarships. She was one of five county dairy princess ambassadors vying for the state title.

Bella Giraud, of Benton County, was named Alternate Dairy Princess Ambassador and will assist in promotional events for the coming year.

The Oregon Dairy Women have also named this year’s incoming country dairy princess ambassadors, all of whom will compete next spring for the state crown. They are:

• Jess Hewitt, Clackamas County.

• Krisarah Nygren, Linn and Benton counties.

• Mariana Llamas, Tillamook County.

• Mia Berry, Washington County.

• Hanna VanDeWalle, Yamhill and Polk counties.

Capital Press ~ aUGUST 5, 2020 BY: George Plaven

Family Dairy Fuels Daughters' Passions for Show Animals

ALBANY, Ore. — Afternoon milking is a family affair at Royal Riverside Farm.

Sisters Gracie and Clancey Krahn open the barn door into a tidy parlor where their herd of 12 cows — mostly Jerseys, with one Holstein and one Brown Swiss — enters four at a time. The girls and their father, Ben Krahn, then gently disinfect each of the animals’ teats with iodine solution before attaching them to an automatic milking machine.

Amy Krahn, the girls’ mother, fills bowls of grain for the cows to eat while being milked. When finished, they saunter back into the classic red barn and the next group comes in to take their place.

“There are no days off when you’re a dairy farmer,” Amy Krahn said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re milking one cow, or 10,000 cows. They have to be milked twice a day, every day.”

It’s that kind of hard work and responsibility that Ben and Amy said they wanted to instill in their children when they bought the 5-acre farm in rural Albany, Ore., in 2010. Both parents grew up on dairies, and dreamed of raising their own family in the same lifestyle.

Initially, Royal Riverside Farm was simply a way to support Gracie and Clancey’s passion for showing animals as the girls entered 4-H and FFA. Not only would they attend national competitions, but they would also have a place to raise the animals at home and complete daily chores such as feeding and milking.

As one cow became two and then eventually a dozen, the Krahns realized they needed extra income to support the farm. While Ben and Amy have worked separate full-time jobs, the family had a moment of reckoning when they decided to bottle and sell milk in a bid to make the enterprise profitable.

The gamble so far has paid off. Since 2018, Royal Riverside Farm has expanded into 35 stores from the Willamette Valley north to Hood River, east to Bend and south to Roseburg. Consumer feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, praising the milk’s freshness and taste.

“It was a leap of faith,” Gracie Krahn said. “We’re so thankful for how our local community has accepted us and just rallied around us.”

Family legacy

For years, Ben and Amy Krahn were dairy farmers without a farm.

Ben was raised in northeast Wisconsin, just west of Green Bay, where his family milked 60 Holsteins. When he was 18, they sold the dairy and moved west after his father, Jim Krahn, took a job as executive secretary of the Oregon Dairy Farmers Association.

Amy, meanwhile, worked on her grandfather’s dairy in Hood River, milking about 50 Jerseys. Once her dad took over the farm, he decided to sell their cows and transition the land into orchards, growing the Columbia Gorge’s signature fruit crops including pears, cherries and apples.

The couple first met while showing cows at the Oregon State Fair in 1993. In a bit of serendipity, they later found themselves working together as students at the Oregon State University Dairy Farm, where they fell in love.

“If someone can love you when you’re milking cows, you know it’s real,” Amy Krahn said with a laugh.

They soon married, and though Ben continued to run the OSU Dairy Farm in Corvallis, they longed for a farm of their own where they could carry on their families’ legacy.

At the height of the Great Recession in 2010, they learned about a foreclosed property along the Willamette River in Albany that was up for auction. With paddles in hand and an opening bid of $50,000, they came away the owners. The whole thing lasted maybe two minutes, Amy remembers.

“It was just a whirlwind from that point on, trying to figure out how to make everything go,” she said.

Champion pedigree

As Gracie, now 18, and Clancey, 15, were preparing to enter 4-H and FFA, the farm was meant to be their base for raising champion pigs and heifers.

The family built a vintage two-story barn and hay loft, and the girls rewarded their labor in the show ring.

In 2013, Gracie participated for the first time at the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wis., and won All-American calf in both the junior and open divisions at the American Jersey Cattle Association’s annual show in Louisville, Ky.

Two years later, Gracie and Clancey made history in Louisville by becoming the first siblings to win their respective divisions for showmanship at the All-American Jersey Show — Gracie as an intermediate, and Clancey as a junior. Just this year, Gracie was crowned the 62nd National Jersey Queen, serving as a promoter for the breed and dairy industry overall.

These are the same cows the family now milks at Royal Riverside. Each has a name and its own distinct personality, from the spicy-tempered Sriracha — appropriately named after the popular hot sauce — to the gentle giant Diana, the herd’s lone Holstein. Holsteins are the largest of all dairy breeds, weighing up to 1,500 pounds.

By working with them every day and having an intimate understanding of what it takes to raise healthy, productive animals, Clancey said it helps them to answer questions from customers and forge solid relationships around the community.

“We can literally tell them anything they want to know,” Clancey said. “We don’t just process the milk. We don’t just raise the baby calves, and we don’t just milk the cows. We literally do it from conception to harvest. ... We can even go all the way back to talking about nutrition and how we feed the cows.”

In addition to the farm, the Krahns also lease a 50-acre field nearby where they haul their manure offsite and grow hay. Sustainability is an important part of their operation, the family says.

Gracie, who is preparing to attend Linn-Benton Community College in the fall, said farming has not only taught her valuable life skills, but helped foster a love for advocacy.

“It’s been a pretty unique experience,” she said.

‘Creamline’ milk

Once the cows are milked, the process of bottling begins.

First, the milk is pumped into bulk holding tanks and then into a large stainless steel vat to be pasteurized in small batches. Vat pasteurization is a bit of an old-school processing technique, Ben Krahn explains, heating the raw milk slowly to 145 degrees and then slowly cooling it.

Each batch may take up to a few hours before it is ready to drink, he said. While not feasible for larger milk processors, Krahn said it is a good fit for Royal Riverside and allows them to add more value to their product.

“We knew that because of the way we do things on a small scale, it was going to require getting a premium for our product and finding a niche market,” he said.

Royal Riverside’s milk is not homogenized, meaning the fat content has not been broken down and dissolved into the body of the fluid. That gives it a richer, creamier taste, the family says, and can aid in digestion. Non-homogenized milk is also known as “creamline” milk.

After pasteurization, the milk is poured into signature half-gallon glass bottles along a manually operated conveyor line, and stored in a nearby refrigerator until it is ready for delivery. The farm bottles milk every 48 hours and produces about 450 gallons per week, all of which gets sold.

Looking ahead, Amy Krahn said she hopes to continue milking cows and possibly expand after Ben retires and the girls finish school. “I can’t imagine ever doing anything else at this point in time, to be honest with you,” she said.

The Krahns say their family’s unique story, combined with vertical integration, has helped them to grow into a successful business.

“We’re trying to basically do something in half a generation that should take three,” Ben Krahn said. “It’s been a challenge, and we just feel extremely blessed that we’re moving on in what we want to do, and that we have people who support us and our product.”