Two brooks run on either side of Twinbrook Farm – they give the farm its name – and so it seems fitting that the two men running the operation can be found living on either side of the farm as well.

Adam Trundy lives down the road about a mile, and his older brother, Aaron, lives the other way, almost five miles away. In between is the farm and the house still occupied by family matriarch Susan Trundy.

Two generations, with a third waiting in the wings, care for this 224-acre dairy farm in the small town of Minot, about 40 miles north-northwest of Portland.

The farm was founded in 1976 with the purchase of the current farm by Maynard “Sonny” Trundy and his wife, Susan. Starting with two cows, the couple eventually increased the herd to 100 cows, and today, son Adam works the farm with his brother Aaron, launching a new generation running Twinbrook.

The years from 2008 to 2010 were busy ones. The farm built a new barn to house the young cows. The first heifer barn (heifers are young female cows that have not yet borne a calf) was constructed so that heifers and dry cows (cows not currently being milked) could be kept at the home farm rather than at another facility. In 2009, the family planted corn to be used for winter feed, added calf housing, and built a new barn with laminated beams and improved ventilation behind the original facility. On Christmas Day 2010, cows were milked in a new milking parlor.

In 2013, the Trundys built a second heifer barn to provide each cow with more room to spread out. Thanks to the spacious accommodations, the 160 Holsteins’ milk output jumped from 467 to more than 800 gallons per animal per day. That’s quite an increase, but as Aaron explains, a comfortable cow gives lots of milk. Another testament to the importance of improved animal care.

The farm is operated by a crew of four, in addition to Aaron and Adam, with Susan doing the books. Thanks to their efforts, Twinbrook has successively won milk quality awards in the past several years, and is also home to a handful of cows that receive top production honors from DairyOne, the regional dairy herd improvement organization.

This is a dairy farm, of course, so the work never ends. Current projects include the installation of a new manure storage pit and completing a new heifer facility – plenty to do for Susan, Adam and Aaron and their crew, and that third generation to come.