Feb 23, 2026
By Rick McNary
Melissa Hildebrand-Reed of Hildebrand Farms Dairy in Junction City is proud she is the product of a long and rich history of women on the farm.
“I have great examples of women like my grandma Margaret who is still going strong, working hard alongside all of us on the farm,” Melissa says. “Women like my aunt Karen and aunt Kathy are more than “farm wives;” they are every part of the day-to-day operation. Grandma was finally able to slow down in her 70s after decades of milking cows and caring for calves.”
Melissa’s great-grandparents, Arnold and Rose, moved to Kansas from Switzerland in the 1920s and began a small hobby farm. In 1930, they acquired a permit to sell milk in nearby Junction City. They had six girls and one boy, Carl.
They expanded the farm when Carl was in high school then turned the farm over to him after he married Margaret. They had four children: Karen, David, Alan (Melissa’s father) and Wayne. Their sons showed interest in staying on the farm, so Carl and Margaret took out a loan in 1975 and built a milking barn.
“I loved growing up on the farm and around my family,” Melissa says. “While I loved that life, I wanted to make sure I forced myself to explore other opportunities. I learned in college I really, I mean really, liked to sleep in. On a dairy farm, you don’t get to sleep in because those cows are waiting to be milked early in the morning.
“After college, I moved to Austin, Texas, and worked in marketing for small businesses for three years,” she continues. “I dated a Kansas boy while I was there, and we decided to marry and return home.”
Like many engaged in farming and ranching, the margins of profitability are so slim they must increase their land or herd size to stay competitive.
“I take this adage from my friend Maggie Seiler, ‘In dairy, you can either get big or get weird,’” Melissa jokes. “When I was in high school in 2006, we had 120 cows at the time and, since we are on well water, increasing our herd put too much strain on our water resources. We then made the scary decision to “get weird” and build our own processing plant, allowing us to sell our milk directly to consumers.”
In 2025, they made another scary decision to install robotic milkers.
“Our family milked cows for 50 years in the barn grandma Margaret and grandpa Carl built,” she says. “Then on July 29, 2025, we had the last milking in that parlor. We fired up the robotic milkers and were insanely surprised at increased production. Instead of being milked twice a day on our schedule, they get milked anytime they want. There is far less stress on the cows, and it has increased their production by 20 percent.”
We also have a robot that’s like a little ice cream truck that pushes up feed for the cows,” she laughs. “It beeps when it goes by and the cows head over to the bunk like a little kid to an ice cream truck.
“We’ve been selling direct to our customers for 17 years now, and I feel our age. Our business is like a teenager at times who thinks they know everything. Then something comes along and humbles us and reminds us we have a lot to learn,” she jokes. “But I love the life we live and the girls we’re able to care for each day. From the grain we raise and the milk we sell, we are part of the process every step of the way.”
When I was talking with Melissa, it reminded me of a time when a farmer told me how if a farmer could figure out how to do the processing, they would keep most of the profit. Truly, Hildebrand Farms Dairy is able to control all three components of what it takes to get food from the farm to your plate (or glass bottles in this case): production, processing and distribution. They produce the milk with their cows, they process it into eight different flavors and distribute it in more than 150 stores in Kansas, or you can go to their farm and purchase it. My granddaughter tells me their root beer milk is to “die for.” Personally, I prefer strawberry, but all of the flavors are delicious.
“Our milk is easy to spot because it’s in our signature glass bottles,” Melissa says. “You can take the bottle back to the grocery store or wherever you purchase it and get a refund toward your next bottle. People can come to our farm store and buy our milk, purchase locally raised meat, gourmet cheese, free-range eggs, refreshing ice cream and a variety of Kansas-produced dry goods. They can view our processing plant, enjoy free samples of milk and sneak a peek at the baby calves.”
If you’re lucky, you can meet grandma Margaret as she enjoys her daily ice cream.