Michael Patrick Price – Signature

Mike Price likes four things: hunting, fishing, golf and dairy farming. Especially dairy farming.

Seeing him walk into a pen full of cows at the picturesque family-owned Kleinpeter Farms Dairy is like watching a crowd of children greet the ice cream man. He loves the cows, and the way they flock to him, they seem to love him back.

This mutual attachment between cows and farm manager is just part of how Price manages the dairy farm. Keeping the approximately 500 Kleinpeter cows happy and healthy is his top priority.

How well are the cows treated? Price and his staff recently earned a perfect score for the third year in a row in a rigorous annual inspection by the American Humane Association, something no other dairy farm (or any other animal-based farm) has achieved.

Price first became interested in dairy farming when he studied agriculture in college. After 30 years in the dairy farming business, he can’t imagine doing anything else.

“I don’t know if I could classify this as a job,” Price says. “I can’t imagine not working with cows. I don’t look at it as work.”

What’s involved in cow comfort? Large fans. Water spritzers. Immaculate barns that automatic sprayers wash out several times a day.

All that pampering makes gregarious cows, and each has a distinct personality, Price says. Each cow has a name, and each responds differently to interaction. Price selects herdsmen to work on the farm by seeing how the cows respond to each interviewee. If the cows don’t like the herdsman, he doesn’t get the job.

“The Kleinpeter philosophy meshes well with mine,” Price says.