While our current milking facilities were built in 1973, the farmhouse and original outbuildings date to 1902. Of course in those times folks farmed out of necessity to feed their families and farming was done with the help of horses. For many years the farmhouse served not only as the Keffer family home, but also as a boarding space for teachers that came to teach at the nearby Maywood School, just down the road. Fred Keffer, born on the farm in 1922, would spend his war years serving as an airplane mechanic stationed in Italy. Upon the war ending in 1945, Fred returned home to Sinking Creek and went to work at the nearby Celanese plant in Narrows, Virginia. When his father fell ill, Fred agreed to return to farming under one condition, he would farm if he could buy a tractor… so he did just that.

A handful of years and three children later, he and Nellie Keffer would start our existing dairy on the farm in 1973. They raised a family and managed to pull through some of the toughest times in dairy history. Their son Frank Keffer would continue the farming legacy alongside his parents and wife Mary. Frank and Mary would raise their own two children on the farm, their son Andrew choosing to continue the dairy with his wife Ashton and son Beau.

Tough times inevitably come and go over generations of farming, but those generations of farmers are tougher. Every bit of running a working farm is a family and sometimes community effort. It takes a large dose of courage and faith to believe a farm will survive, but it’s that belief in itself that keeps us going. The legacy of this farm and the work of ancestors past, inspire us to find a way. There’s no room for “what ifs”, only “what’s next”.