Christine is a hardworking mother and a seventh-generation farmer. She owns and operates Cast Iron Farm, a small farm in McMinnville, Ore., where she and her family raise a number of different animals.
Christine is passionate about her cows and the milk they produce. She is also meticulous about providing her customers the safest product possible. That begins with treating her cows well. For most of the year, they are kept on pasture that is rotationally grazed. That means the cows return to a new, clean piece of ground after every milking. The pasture contains a mixture of orchard and timothy grass, as well as alfalfa and clover—legumes that provide high-quality nutrition to the cows and, in turn, to Christine’s customers. Though they are pasture-raised, the cows always have access to an enclosed barn. But they tend to not spend much time there, except during especially rainy or cold conditions. And unless Christine decides the weather conditions are too severe, which is rare, there is never a time in which the cows are fully enclosed in the barn.
In 2013, Christine sued the Oregon Department of Agriculture after it banned her from advertising her legal raw milk sales. The Department agreed to stop enforcing the ban in 2014 and the state repealed the ban in 2015.
In 2024, Christine again joined a suit against the Oregon Department of Agriculture after it applied rules meant to apply to large dairies with hundreds of animals to her small dairy.
Related Cases
Oregon Small Dairies
Small dairies are suing the Oregon Department of Agriculture after it applied rules meant for big dairies. The change came at the request of the dairy industry, not because of health or safety concerns.
