Dakin Dairy Farms

Specialties

Oct — April is «Farm Fun» Season at Dakin Dairy Farms where they produce & bottle fresh local milk on their 350 acre sustainable family farm. Hayride, pig race, feeding calves & making butter are all part of a fabulous guided Farm Tour. Enjoy an «Old Fashioned Country Picnic» under the 5 acre Oak Hammock filled with good olé farm fun, featuring slow roasted pulled pork, an «It’s All About The Cheese» menu, chili, angus hot dogs & marshmallows roasted over a campfire, Ice Cream & Moooore! Group Tours & Birthdays Parties are a must here! Enjoy FREE the 5 acre Farm Fun Play Area with purchase of Picnic Wed-​Sat 10−5pm. Oct-​April Farm Tours $ 10, W-​F 12pm, Saturday’s 10am, 12pm & 3pm. Last Weekend in Oct-​Dec ONLY — 7 Acre Maze Open M-​F, Sat until 7pm — $ 7 (bring a flashlight). Thanksgiving — Christmas: «It’s A Country Christmas» with Christmas Carol Hayrides & «Live Manger» Family Photo Opportunities (costumes available).The Farm Market open all year M-​F.

History

Established in 1997.

Our family has been milking cows in Manatee County, Florida since 1973. Cameron, Farren and Jerry Dakin own the three remaining dairy farms in the County, and are amongst the fewer than 150 dairies remaining in Florida.

In 2008 we designed and added a farm tour path, a farm fun play area under our incredibly gorgeous oak hammock, and a milk bottling facility 75 feet away from our milking parlor attached by a bridge. Our walking tour ends in the Milk Plant learning about the process of pasteurization and the bottling of our own «Farm Fresh» milk.

Our first bottle of milk came off the line March of 2009. Local restaurants started using our milk and cream immediately, excited about having FRESH local milk straight from the farm where they could actually come see where it was being produced and bottled. The local Sweetbay Grocery stores and Whole Foods state wide also jumped on our «Local Farm» produced and bottled milk as well as many local Farmers Markets.