M&M Dairy

Just 3 miles outside of Hull lives Merrill and Marlys Nettinga-owners and operators of M&M Dairy.

The dairy’s roots step back to the 1940’s with Merrill’s grandpa, Gerrit Nettinga, who rented out the farm, while he and his family lived about 2 miles away. It wasn't until 1990 that Merrill bought the farm after farming with his dad, Morris, that they took ownership.

Following deployment from the Korean War, Gerrit’s son (Merrill’s dad), Morris, bought the farm and began farming. He added beef cows to the farm but then in the 60’s he switched to dairy cows. Of course back then everything was done by hand, and he used the already existing stanchion barn.

The Nettinga’s: Kylie, Michael & Rhett, Merrill & Marlys, and Mitch & Amber.

As the years went by, Morris continued to slowly buy more land near the farm. Morris and his wife, Vergie built a life together and had seven kids. One of those kids, Merrill, had an interest in the farm.

Merrill married Marlys in 1985. Shortly after that, Morris started having strokes and unfortunately, died way too early. In the mid 80’s Merrill and Marlys then took over the farm. They then had 2 sons, Mitchell and Michael.

Today, M&M Dairy is now composed of 130 Holstein cows. Michael and Kylie, and Mitchell and Amber, would be the fourth generation to be a part of the farm.

Over the years the farm has had new barns built, a shop, a silage pad added, a lagoon built, as well as a herringbone milking parlor in the early 2000s.

The farm's newest addition as of June 2023, are two Lely Robotic milkers. With this comes an expansion to the milk room as well as the freestall barn. It’s been quite the change going from a parlor to fetching cows, but with this change comes expansive possibilities for the family and the farm in the future.

As the Nettinga’s look forward to 2024, they are excited to enter this new chapter with the robotic milkers, as well as adding in the 5th generation to the farm.