Third-generation dairy farmers Ben and Jessica Silacci took over ownership of the Silacci Dairy in Petaluma from Ben’s father. Their closed, organic herd consists of 200 Holstein and Jersey milking cows. In addition to the dairy operation, the Silacci family grows about 25% of their own high-quality feeds (organic alfalfa and clover) and all of their organic pasture grasses and silage on 196 acres of rolling hills and pasture.
Ben Silacci started working at his father’s dairy farm directly after college. Jessica also grew up on a farm in Petaluma, where she was introduced to cattle at an early age. She got her first heifer (Dixie) in third grade, which proved instrumental in developing the family’s herd over the following decade.
Owned by Ben’s grandfather and great uncle, the Silacci land has been in dairy farming since the 1940s. They earned attention in the 1950s for their elevated barn, only the second such structure ever built in Northern California.
After seven years of progress, Ben and his father mutually agreed to an organic dairy transition, with Ben buying his father’s interest in the farm and taking over management of the operation with Jessica. This generational transition illustrates a family farm successfully moving toward a more viable and stable economic future.
In 2013, Straus Family Creamery asked the Silaccis to become a family farm certified organic milk supplier. The young family is a great fit, with their energetic and progressive take on farming, land stewardship, and animal husbandry.
In 2020, Jessica and Ben developed a carbon farm plan with Sonoma Resource Conservation District and Straus Family Creamery’s sustainability team. The Carbon Farm Plan provides a roadmap for reducing the dairy farm’s climate impact through regenerative agricultural practices. If fully implemented, the Carbon Farm Plan practices will potentially sequester 19,280 tons of carbon over the next 20 years.
The Silacci Family is the second dairy farm in the Creamery’s independent supplier group to develop a Carbon Farm Plan. In 2013, Straus Dairy Farm became the first dairy to implement a carbon farm plan in California.
