08/08/2019
An overdue update re: the farm, dairy, and even The Farm Store!
Firstly: The FARM STORE will be closing early this summer season. Our last day will be Saturday, August 17. So please come see us in the next week or so and we look forward to seeing you soon!
Secondly: this is a LETTER that we delivered to all of our stores and vendors across northern Michigan. As difficult as it was to write this, we know you all deserve an update of where we're at at Shetler Family Dairy and farm.
As the letter states, we promise to send more updates when available and know that we most certainly appreciate your continued love, support and loyalty over the past 19 years, especially these past fourteen months.
And, be assured... there is a future for the milk! ***Read that letter 😉
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MEMORANDUM
DATE: July 29, 2019
TO: Our Valued Stores and Customers
FROM: Shetler Family Dairy
SUBJECT: An Update re: Our Milk!
As you know, it’s been an incredibly difficult fourteen months for the Shetler family after the sudden loss of our mother, Sally, last May 2018, and then again with the sudden loss of our father, Farmer George, this past January 2019. Along with that loss, we have continued operating the farm and dairy in their absence and moving forward with some very big decisions that they had previously set in motion prior to their passing. We have negotiated a sale of all of the bottling equipment, recipes, processes, and even our slogan to a group of fellow dairy farmers, Farmers’ Creamery, located in Mio, MI. As they continue adding the final touches on their new facility and preparing to move our equipment into it, we will continue to put high quality milk into Shetler bottles and deliver weekly to your favorite stores until they receive final licensing approval on their end and are ready to go.
We know that there have been some questions surfacing in recent months and weeks and we felt it important to send an update to let you know where we’re at in the process. We anticipate a final shut-down in either late-August or September and it is our intention to minimize any disruption to availability of milk. We know the farmers at Farmers’ Creamery and highly recommend them; in fact, we all look forward to drinking their milk too! They were hand-selected by Farmer George to carry on the tradition he created of bottling a high quality, healthy product in a very special way.
We promise to send more communication soon as well as plan to introduce you to the farmers at Farmers’ Creamery. We welcome any calls or questions you have as we know that these final months of operation may be somewhat bumpy as we transition to this next chapter of our lives as a family. Our family representative (and forever friend to the family), Mike Biehl, is serving as our primary point of contact for all details related to this sale and transition and he welcomes a call from you if one is needed. His number is 231.384.3788.
From all of us at Shetler Family Dairy: Mike Biehl, Kaleb Shetler, Jake Shetler, Stacia (Shetler) Davis, Annie (Shetler) Olds, and Pete Shetler
