A loan to Millie’s Farms, a woman-owned family farm in Big Prairie Township near Newaygo, put Northern Initiatives over the $100 million mark in loans made since its founding 30 years ago.
The milestone was lost on the cows.
“They all get names because they’re like family to us,” said Amelia “Millie” Richardson, who works the farm with her husband and their blended family of six kids (who also get names; this is Luella, left).
Millie’s Farms has a mission to support local food and humanely raised meat but their farm-to-table market is also fulfilling a much-needed service – providing healthy food where the nearest supermarket is five miles away – “and expensive,” Millie said.
The loan from Northern Initiatives is helping the family build a new market building right at the farm, saving them several 15-minute trips daily across the Hardy Dam to the rented storefront they’ve been using. They sell local produce and meat, along with ice cream, their own soap, and other Michigan-made products.
“We don’t have a problem selling beef,” said Trevor Richardson. “The feeder market is sky high. There’s not enough cattle because farmers are leaving.”
But farming is what this family loves. “Generational wealth is big to me,” said Trevor. “I work for a company that works for the auto industry, where generations have had to get their hands dirty. I’ve seen what can be done.”
Northern Initiatives “took a chance on us,” Trevor said. “With both of us coming from divorced families, it took a hit on our credit.” He said in 2019, when they were a week away from closing on a loan from a bank, the bank pulled out, leaving them with a business card to a commercial lender at Northern Initiatives.
Northern Initiatives used investments from the Michigan Good Food Fund, Huntington Bank, and the Michigan CDFI Fund to help finance the loans.
The farm actually started with an impulse purchase off Facebook Marketplace – a real live calf. “We had nothing – a minivan and a dog crate,” Trevor laughs, “and I’m like, can I buy this calf?” That first calf, Dixie, beget Oreo, who beget Posie … and a farm was born. Millie’s Farms is now home to 119 head of cattle, goats, horses, and really smart hogs. “One of them figured out how to lift the gate right off the hinges, letting all the cows free,” Millie remembers.
Running a farm means lots of work and the family embraces it. There are four daughters living at home now, in various stages of high school and college. They all play sports, get excellent grades, and spend hours with the animals, the farm and the market. (This is Josie, left, working in the market.) They have stories of animal rescues from the small pond on the property to hooking up electric fences during a downpour. There was the fat white steer, Mojo, that ran the chute at top speed, and Kora, a heifer, who broke Millie’s leg. And there’s the “cow dog” Lamborghini, an orphaned Hereford calf that follows people around like, well, a dog.
The Richardsons are planning carefully for growth, including moving into wholesale beef sales to local restaurants that earn rave reviews for their burgers. They also make their food mobile-friendly, for all the people who flock to the area for the woods and waters. “We individually package everything and suck the oxygen right out of it,” Millie said. “The campers love it.”
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