May 5, 2025
Restaurant and food brand backed by CT dairy farmers eyes aggressive growth
HBJ PHOTO | MICHAEL PUFFER
(Left) Jim Smith, part-owner of Cushman Farm in Franklin and chairman of The Farmer’s Cow LLC, with Edwin Molina, CEO of FC Development Corp.
HBJ PHOTO | MICHAEL PUFFER
Steve Lane, president of The Farmer's Cow.
Two decades ago, six Connecticut dairy farms came together to launch The Farmer’s Cow milk brand, aiming to create a revenue source that would help them resist the significant decline of the state’s agriculture industry.
Today, the brand’s logo — a peaceful cow with a pleasant farm scene behind it — is a common sight on milk jugs and egg cartons on shelves at Walmart, Stop & Shop and elsewhere.
Two restaurants have also opened under the brand — in Mansfield and Berlin — featuring ice cream and a simple menu focused on locally sourced ingredients.
The farmers and organizers behind the brand are eying a significant expansion this year, with plans to add a line of cheeses on store shelves and one new Farmer’s Cow Calfe & Creamery restaurant. They aim to add at least two more restaurants and additional locally grown retail products in 2026.
HBJ PHOTO | MICHAEL PUFFER
The Farmer's Cow Calfe' & Creamery in Berlin.
The effort will be fueled this spring by an equity fundraising campaign through online crowdfunding investment site StartEngine, said Steven Ayer, chairman of FC Development Corp., the investment and management vehicle for the Farmer’s Cow brand.
Ayer said the goal is to raise up to $2.5 million from investors within six months.
“It’s about partnering with farmers to help launch the brand into the next level,” he said. “People love the brand. They love the idea of supporting the local farmer. People are passionate about that.”
Growth vehicle
FC Development was formed in 2019. It operates the brand’s two restaurants and will also be involved in developing and licensing all new products.
The farmers opened the first Farmer’s Cow Calfe & Creamery in Mansfield in 2012. FC Development Corp. opened the second location last summer, inside a former Arby’s in Berlin.
Retail milk sales have stayed exclusively with the original Farmer’s Cow company, which includes Cushman Farms in Franklin; Fairvue Farms in Woodstock; Fort Hill Farms in Thompson; Graywall Farms in Lebanon; Mapleleaf Farm in Hebron; and Hytone Farm in Coventry.
HBJ PHOTO | MICHAEL PUFFER
Cushman Farms in Franklin (above) is an equity stakeholder in the Farmer’s Cow company.
A Mapleleaf Farm cow named Amber was the model for the logo.
The farmers own the biggest share of FC Development Corp., but about 180 friends, family and supporters have bought around $2 million in shares over the past three years, Ayer said.
Bill Peracchio, a member of the family that owns Hytone, said there were about 1,700 registered dairy farms in Connecticut when he enrolled in the University of Connecticut’s agricultural school in 1969. Today, there are 85. They face the constant squeeze of rising prices for feed, energy and other inputs.
Hytone has about 400 milking cows and 240 calves on its 250-acre farm, which produces more than 3,500 gallons of milk daily.
Peracchio’s farm also hosts an organic digester that composts manure and food waste. Methane is siphoned off and burned by a generator to produce electricity sold into the electric grid. The resulting compost is spread over Hytone’s fields to help raise cow-feed crops.
While Hytone is profitable, its long-term outlook is cloudy, the 75-year-old Peracchio said. The Farmer’s Cow and FC Development are part of a multiprong sustainability drive.
The farm isn’t seeing any profits from FC Development Corp. yet, Peracchio said. But he believes in the concept and the brand’s reputation. Just like farming, it takes a lot of effort and a little faith early on, he noted.
HBJ PHOTO | MICHAEL PUFFER
Farmer’s Cow milk is sold at Walmart, Stop & Shop and other grocery locations.
“If you are dealing with farmers, you are dealing with optimists, because if you are not an optimist, you can’t do this business,” Peracchio said. “Because we are going to put half-a-million dollars of money into the ground expecting a return at the end of the year, whether there’s a drought or a hurricane or a flood or whatever. We are raising cattle or breeding cattle to come into this operation. Well, we are figuring things are going to be good going forward.”
Ayer, a partner in Norwich-based boutique wealth management firm Strata Wealth Partners at Hightower, said FC Development is in a phase where any profits are reinvested into the company. He aims to begin paying dividends in about five years.
He said FC Development’s value — as measured by online startup valuation platform Equidam — has increased from $3 million to $22 million.
Ayer said FC Development and The Farmer’s Cow LLC generated about $4 million in revenue in 2024, which is expected to double in each of the next two years and accelerate from there. The company employs 40 people, including 35 in its restaurants and five in the corporate office, he said.
Fueled by farm-to-table appeal and public backing for small farmers, the restaurant could have more than 100 locations throughout New England and the mid-Atlantic five years from now, Ayer predicts.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture
Ayer said he has personally invested about $400,000 in FC Development Corp., in addition to helping run the company without taking a salary until recently.
“Just like the entire vision of this company is to help the farmer, which helps the community, we really want the public to benefit from the rise of this company,” Ayer said. “We are selling common stock so people can benefit from that. We are not selling debt or other instruments. If our stock goes up 1,000%, investors will benefit from that.”
Brand ‘megaphone’
FC Development Corp. recently engaged Fayetteville, Arkansas-based marketing firm The Artist Evolution for its new push.
The company is also working with North Haven-based ShelfSpace Marketing to develop new Farmer’s Cow-branded products, and get them onto grocery shelves.
The restaurants and retail products both reinforce each other’s identity, said FC Development CEO Edwin Molina.
“I see the restaurants as a megaphone to the community with the grocery stores,” Molina said. “It all ties together.”
Jim Smith, part-owner of Cushman Farm in Franklin and chairman of The Farmer’s Cow LLC, said the cooperative hopes to eventually draw in all Connecticut dairy farmers, cutting them into the retail markup for processed milk.
Smith’s 2,300-acre Cushman Farm has 1,700 milking cows and 1,200 calves. Last year it produced about 5 million gallons of milk. The farm leases another 1,200 acres of cropland.
“Ideally, what we want to do is market all Connecticut milk through The Farmer’s Cow to narrow the gap of the higher cost of farming here and other places,” Smith said.
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