Today we’d like to introduce you to Ridge Bollheimer
Hi Ridge , thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Growing up on a small farm I showed in 4H at the Jackson County fair. I’ve always had a passion for livestock and the agricultural industry. Starting in high school I started raising beef cattle to sell as quarters and halves of beef. Within a few years, I outgrew this location and started renting a barn just a few miles down the road. Continuously growing every year in 2021 I was able to purchase our own farm. This was an old dairy farm that had sat vacant for a long time and we began to restore it right away. Now all of our equipment & livestock is all at one location. We have opened a farm store and are open throughout the week for customers to enjoy our product raised right at the farm.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Thankfully, we continue to work hard every day. We have multiple endeavours and irons in the fire. When one iron may not be too warm another is on fire. This diversity is what we love and keeps us going! We’re able to grow and keep expanding every year because of this.
Any struggle along the way would include continuous price increases.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Lane View Farm is located in Cement City, Michigan. We specialize in raising black angus beef cattle, pork, lamb, & chicken. We are known for our all natural grain fed beef but have a large selection of other proteins at our farm store. What sets us apart is the experience we offer to our customers. When you arrive at our farm, we enjoy giving the farm experience to our customers. Not only are they able to shop inside our farm store but they’re also able to walk around the farm and see the animals. Kids are able to collect their own fresh eggs out of the chicken coop, pet the goats and lambs, or even feed our pigs some donuts. Our goal is to have a very clean, healthy, and organized farm to give people comfort, knowing where their food comes from.
New this year we took on the Smash Box located at Meckley’s Flavor Fruit Farm. This allows us to provide quality smash burgers made with our very own beef open during seasonal festivals.
Not only is Lane View Farm our biggest passion, we also own Sunshine Acres Trail, which is located at our families apple orchard just on the road. During the summer months we have a sunflower field where everyone is able to enjoy walking the sunflower trails, photo sets, and cutting their own sunflowers. We also offer farm to table dinner experiences in the orchard and sunflower field and inside our centennial barn. We host a country concert inside the sunflower field as well! We enjoy hosting festivals and events all year round.
When I mentioned diversity earlier. I am also a benefit auctioneer specializing in charity and fundraising events. In 2023 I was fortunate to be named the Michigan auctioneer state champion.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
My wife, Lindsay is a manager at her family‘s apple orchard just 2 miles down the road from our farm. She does all the social media and marketing for her family’s business.
We work together a lot with festivals and events and getting people to both locations.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lane.view.farm?igsh=bmg4c3E3MnNwbnEz
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/15GT3CDGYs/?mibextid=LQQJ4d
