Jordan Beck | Daily Press Kayla DeBacker stands behind the front counter of DeBacker Family Dairy’s Escanaba store. The business will have been operating for eight years this spring.

Jordan Beck | Daily Press
Kayla DeBacker prepares an ice cream cone at DeBacker Family Dairy’s Escanaba store. Along with milk, ice cream is one of the dairy’s core products.

Editor’s note: The Daily Press features a profile of an area business each week. This week’s featured business is DeBacker Family Dairy of Escanaba and Daggett.

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ESCANABA — While DeBacker Family Dairy is based in Daggett, it also has a significant presence in the Escanaba area.

Tracy DeBacker, who co-owns the dairy with her husband Terry DeBacker, said her spouse is a fourth-generation dairy farmer. However, her family began bottling milk less than a decade ago.

“It will be … eight years this coming spring,” she said.

According to DeBacker, her family moved their farm from Cornell to Daggett about a decade and a half ago. At this time, they started looking into the possibility of bottling milk, which farmers on her husband’s side of the family had done a few generations ago.

While researching this possibility, DeBacker said she heard it could take her family about five years before their dairy was fully operational. This proved not to be the case.

“Within a year, we were up and bottling already,” she said.

So far, DeBacker said things have been going well for her family’s business.

“You just hope that you grow a little bit more every year,” she said, noting that DeBacker Family Dairy has been able to achieve this goal since it began operating.

Milk has always been one of DeBacker Family Dairy’s core products, DeBacker said. All of the milk sold by the dairy comes from its own cows.

“There’s nothing brought in — no hormones, no antibiotics,” she said.

DeBacker said the dairy’s other core product is ice cream.

“We have over 100 (flavors), but I still think the most popular is going to o be chocolate and vanilla,” she said.

These products — among others, such as butter, cheese, meats and pizza — are sold at DeBacker Family Dairy’s Escanaba store, located across from the U.P. State Fairgrounds. This store has been open for almost half a decade.

“This will be our fourth year,” DeBacker said. Products from DeBacker Family Dairy are sold at Elmer’s County Market, Meijer and Sav-Mor IGA in Escanaba, Angeli’s in Menominee and IGA in Gladstone. Escanaba restaurant the Stonehouse also uses its products.

Along with its Escanaba storefront, DeBacker said DeBacker Family Dairy has a store at its farmstead in Daggett. There, customers can get a behind-the-scenes look at the dairy.

“You can watch milk being bottled or ice cream being made,” she said.

The dairy also has a presence at fairs and festivals across the Upper Peninsula, including the U.P. State Fair.

Looking forward, DeBacker said she is hoping to introduce additional products.

“(We’re) trying to grow — trying to add new products, possibly, in the future,” she said. However, she noted that this process could take some time, as new products need to go through a full inspection before being introduced.

DeBacker Family Dairy’s Escanaba store is open on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. For more information on the store and the business as a whole, visit debackerfamilydairy.com or find “DEBACKER FAMILY DAIRY, LLC” on Facebook.