By David Fleet
Editor
Brandon Twp.-In February 1982, area resident George Miller purchased a gallon of milk.
While the transaction seems mundane by most standards, the purchase marked the beginning of a successful business venture that today four decades later helps define a community.
This month, Cook’s Farm Dairy, 2950 Seymour Lake Road will celebrate 40 years of selling dairy products raised, produced and distributed from their 200 acre township farm. Cook’s Farm includes about 55 cows each producing about seven and a half gallons of milk each day for a total of about 375 gallons used for a variety of dairy products.
Quinton Cook, 27 the son of owner Clark Cook is now the fourth generation to manage the family farm. Quinton, a 2013 Brandon High School graduate and 2017 Alma College alumni grew up working on the farm and recently took a leadership role. In addition, Tom Cordes and Tom Kobet have added to the success of business with 20 years of work on the farm.
“We’ve always had such strong community support over the years,” said Quinton. “We’ve created memories and experiences that many of our customers want to give to their kids.”
Quinton attributes his father Clark’s foresight during the early 1980s with the addition of the dairy along with the drive up window that has attracted thousands of customers over the years.
“My great-grandfather started the farm in 1933 and my dad started the dairy 40 years ago,” said Quinton. “So every generation has added to the farm to make it better for our family and better for the community.”
As an agricultural student at Michigan State University during the fall of 1979, Clark was given a class assignment to write a comprehensive business plan using the family farm that would, in theory, increase profits.

At that time Cook’s Farm was selling their milk to the Michigan Milk Producers Association, a cooperative owned and controlled by dairy farmers throughout the state.
Clark’s plan was to halt selling the milk to the MMPA and construct a processing plant for the 300 gallons of milk they produced each day at the farm. The plan also incorporated the idea of putting milk into plastic bags, popular in Canada at the time and creating a drive-up window for local customers to purchase the farm fresh milk. The plastic bag containers were later discontinued, but the production of dairy products thrived.
The Cook’s have been township farmers for nearly a half century.
Clark Miller started the 200 acre Seymour Lake Road farm which included milk cows in 1933. In 1958 the original barn on the Miller Farm burned to the ground. A neighboring farmer, John Cook, was hired to help rebuild the Miller’s barn. While working on the construction project at the farm John met Sally, one of the two daughters of Clark Miller living on the farm.
John and Sally married in 1958 and continued to work on the farm, ultimately purchasing the business from Miller in 1976. The couple had two sons, John-Mark and Clark.
Clark and his father John continued to operate and maintain the farm.