BLANCHARD, Mich. – They met as teenagers in Europe under a 4-H exchange program, then later married and started a dairy farm in the U.S.

Tjerk and Ramona Okkema are now the owners of Michigan State University’s 2026 Dairy Farm of the Year.

Their focus on milk quality, exceptional herd management and implementation of innovative technologies at their De Grins Oer Dairy operation in Blanchard were among the things cited by MSU for them receiving the coveted award.

“Their consistent focus on the details drives the herd’s impressive milk quality and overall performance,” said Miriam Weber-Nielsen, chair of the award selection committee.

Ramona Okkema said she considers the award a major achievement especially since they are first generation farmers in Michigan after growing up on dairy farms elsewhere.

“I thought, wow. We’re part of a group that’s at the top of the top,” she said.

Tjerk Okkema grew up in The Netherlands while his wife was raised in New Hampshire.

They met in 1982 when Ramonda, through the International 4-H Youth Exchange program, spent six months in The Netherlands with seven different host families.

The second host family she stayed with and Tjerk’s father were partners at a dairy farm built in 1658.

The first thing she did there was go inside a barn, where she caught her first glimpse of her husband to be. He was on top of hay bales stacked high in the air and setting up a ventilator to prevent spontaneous combustion.

Ramona said it wasn’t love at first sight and they didn’t speak to each other much because of language barriers. However, after she returned home, they began writing letters to each other and, occasionally, talked on the telephone.

Three years later, Tjerk showed up at her house and stayed for a week. 

“My husband realized maybe the ocean wasn’t too big to check out that New England girl,” she said.

They saw each other again a few months later when Ramona returned to The Netherlands to visit her favorite host families. 

After she returned home again, they continued to communicate mostly through letters until getting married in 1991. For seven years, they lived and had children together in The Netherlands when Tjerk expressed a desire to move the family to the U.S. to start a dairy farm.

They found one to their liking in Michigan and began with seven dairy cows but, gradually, the herd grew mostly from calves born at the farm to 690 head currently.

Among the many improvements at the farm included the addition of a carousel allowing up to 40 cows at a time to be milked by two workers in less than 11 minutes.

Ramona said it used to take over seven hours to milk every cow when the herd was 235 head but now it’s done two hours quicker with three times as many cows. Robots were also brought in to carry out the post dipping on the cows needed after every milking to prevent infection.

She said the mundane task of cleaning the udders and applying iodine on the teets after milking to kill any bacteria used to be done by hand, but it was difficult to keep the position filled.

A Wi-Fi based system with cameras that lets the entire herd be monitored 24 hours a day was also installed. Ramona said the system detects things like increases or decreases in body temperature and lack of movement, which could indicate the beginnings of an illness that can be addressed quickly to keep the symptoms from becoming worse and for a faster recovery.

Alerts of a potential problem and which cow identified by a number should be checked are automatically sent to a cellphone or computer.

“We cannot physically lay eyes on every single cow, but this monitoring system helps us recognize cows that need extra attention,” she said.

Points were also scored with the MSU decision makers on their involvement with local schools and community groups in teaching about dairy production. The couple is also active with organizations in the industry like the Michigan Milk Producers Association and the Mecosta County Farm Bureau.

Ramona said she thinks the award will create more opportunities for them to tell the story about the hard work involved in producing milk and getting it to consumers.

“Most people go into a grocery store and they’ll look at dairy products but they really don’t know the process behind getting a top-quality dairy product from the dairy farm to the kitchen table,” she said.