Century Farm
Our Family
Six generations of livestock raising
Our farm started when our ancestors came from Norway to the same land we live on today. Our story started in 1863 with a log cabin. From there, our family began raising all different types of animals. The animals over the years included pigs, beef and dairy cattle, chickens, horses and ponies. After a brief period without animals, we started back up with chickens in 2012, then goats in 2017. We also grow various crops along the Root River.
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We are proud to use many of the same structures built by our ancestors. The chickens live in a coop built over 70 years ago, and our bucks have the nicest barn around. Our barn, a quarter mile from the house and doe pen, has been here through it all. It is located along the Root River bike trail and featured in many a biker's social media posts. Every time I go into the barn, I am surrounded by a feeling of comfort. I feel the embrace of my ancestors, the long days, the constant work to build a future for themselves and the generations to come. I can picture them doing chores, building the limestone walls, and replacing the entire upper half after a fire tried to knock them down. Their perseverance makes me proud of where I came from. I cannot describe how proud I am to continue their legacy as the sixth generation to love the land and build my future the way they did over 100 years ago.
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We are pleased to grow our own grass and alfalfa hay for our goats. We also grow and crush corn for our chicken and duck feed.
About
Johnson's Generations Century Farm
I'm Ceona Johnson, a sixth-generation farmer and sophomore in college. I am majoring in Biology in hopes of entering the agriculture, animal research, or veterinary fields. When we got goats for the first time, I fell in love before we even went to pick them up. My biggest interest in life are goats, my best moment involves goats, my happiest memories, you guessed it - they're with goats. My hobbies are goat chores, showing goats, clipping goat hooves, excitedly planning goat things, and making goat milk soap. I have very few things in life that aren't goat related!
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The journey of owning goats has been long and extremely educational for me. We started, shockingly, with 2 boers (never again!) and soon after got 4 bottle babies for under $50. If you're a goat person reading this, you can imagine these babies were the best and hardest thing. I spent all the free time a sixth grader has with these goats. Bottle raising was fun for me then. But as cheap goats go, they had lots of health issues. This is where my education on goats expanded and my love for research began. We got lots of minor illnesses, discovered the benefits of electric fencing, and the perks of weed control that goats have to offer. This was the only thing my dad admits he likes about the goats.
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After a few years, we got our first Nigerian Dwarf and the rest is history. We started our showing herd with four decently put-together girls and went from there. Pearl's name is known throughout the extended family because we've had her for so long. Since the beginning, we've had boers, recorded grades, Lamanchas, Nigerians, Nubians, and a mean old pygmy.
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Check out our goats to see where we are now!
About the "Owner"
The leader of the herd
