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The Dakin family dairy businesses all started with Romanus (Pete) Dakin, born in Livermore, ME in After settling in Parrish, Florida, Pete purchased 60 acres, built two chicken houses and began chicken farming. He also bought 400 feeder bulls. After five years of chicken farming, his contract was over and the bottom fell out of the beef business. After exclaiming years before “he’d never milk another cow again” he proclaimed “dairying is the only business where we made money” so he built a milking parlor in 1974 between the two chicken houses and converted them to feed barns. He scraped the rest of his money together and bought 110 springing (ready to calve) heifers. In 1980 his two eldest sons, Cameron and Farren, purchased and built their own Dairy Farms in Myakka City. They operate today as Cameron Dakin Dairy and Farren Dakin Dairy. In 1990, Pete retired from Dairy Farming with a herd of 750 Holsteins which he sold to his two youngest sons, Rodney and Jerry. Jerry began his own business as Jerry Dakin Dairy in 1995 and steadily increased his herd to 700 Holsteins. New environmental standards forced him to purchase his own land sooner than later. In 1998 he married his wife Karen and in 2001, they purchased 350 acres in Myakka City and built a state of the art dairy encompassing all the new environmental issues into their design. At present they milk 1,400 cows. Recycle manure composted with yard clippings into marketable compost which sells to landscaping companies by the semi-load under the name of Dakin Dairy Natural Soils. Grow hybrid grasses on 300 acres and are growing corn due to escalating corn prices. The Dakins' have plans to incorporate methane digesting to produce electricity as well as sell excess back to the power grid. Jerry, and his brothers, Cameron and Farren have the last three remaining dairy farms in Manatee County. Including the 1,400 milking cows at Jerry Dakin Dairy, they are milking a total of 5,000 Holsteins. In 2006, Jerry and Karen decided to try something new and innovative to add value to their milk. Given the significant Cuban and Hispanic population in south Florida they decided to produce a drinkable yogurt in addition to bottled milk and cheeses under the name of Dakin Dairy Farms with the desire to someday use all the milk produced on the Dakin Farms. Please visit all the other areas of this website to learn of the ongoing evolution of Dakin Dairy Farms. |
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History of Dakin Dairy Farms |
1926. After serving three years in the Navy, Pete started a dairy in Livermore, ME in 1948, where he milked 16 cows. By 1960, his dairy grew to 60 milking cows and he bought a second dairy farm down the road where he milked another 30 cows. In October of 1963 Pete went to Florida with a friend to take his mother to her winter home and when he returned to Maine, he told his wife Jeanette and the boys “we’re moving to Florida.”