STORRS — Around the time that Thomas Jefferson was farming at his Monticello estate, Boaz and Lydia Stearns planted their roots in Storrs, creating what would become a thousand-acre dairy farm.
"The legacy of the Stearns family means a lot to me," said Josh Stearns, a 10th generation farmer and one of seven shareholders in Mountain Dairy, a 100-percent family-owned business. Stearns works alongside his father Leslie, his siblings, uncles and cousins, under the leadership of his 86-year-old grandfather Arthur, who is chairman of the board. The next generation of Stearns is just as connected to the land, with Josh's 12-year-old son Ethan feeding the cattle and riding along with dad to deliver milk, while daughter Nadine plans on taking business courses that she could apply on the farm someday.
From growing mulberries for Connecticut's thriving silk industry to transitioning into a milk producer, Mountain Dairy's 240-year-old journey was built on well-timed diversification, early entrant advantage in the home delivery market for milk, cost control, and aggressive all-cash acquisitions of struggling small dairy farms. After a change in leadership on the plant side last year — there was a death and a retirement — the family decided that it was time for a fresh look at the milk business.
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