History of Hightail

Long story short: I'm just a girl who grew up on a small dairy farm in northeast Iowa with the dream of one day, starting her own creamery...

Here's the whole story: If I’m starting from the beginning, like the VERY beginning, I’ve been an entrepreneur from the start. Whether it was painting nails in my “nail salon”, cutting flowers from my grandma’s garden and playing “flower shop owner”, or charging my little cousins to gamble at my “casino”, I was always hustling. The other thing I’ve known from a very young age…I wanted to take over the family dairy farm. And anyone who knows anything about dairy knows two things:

Dairy farming is hard work

and

Milk prices have pretty much stayed the same for the past 40 years

So, with that in mind, I had to have some tough conversations with my parents about how I could make this dream of taking over the family farm a reality. We ultimately decided that value-added would be the route to go. What’s value-added you ask? It’s essentially taking a commodity that’s generally sold in bulk (in my case selling milk from our farm to a processor by the hundredweight for a price that we have no control over) and instead adding value to it by either bottling it, making cheese, etc. More specifically, I wanted to deliver these products door-to-door, rebuilding the connection consumers feel to the food they eat.

When I was in high school, I chose to take a marketing class and had to write a business plan as my final project. While the name of the company I created wasn’t the same (it was called Milk Majesty haha), many of the business elements were the same. I then proceeded to enter my business plan in my state’s DECA competition and ended up making it to the national competition in Anaheim California that year! About a year later at a scholarship luncheon, an Iowa State student who was interning for the company who awarded me the scholarship asked what my plans were. I explained to him that I was planning to attend Iowa State and that I had this business idea. He encouraged me to get involved in an entrepreneurship program on campus called AgEI.

When I got to Iowa State the next fall, I immediately got involved. I didn’t know how the heck I was going to get this thing off the ground, but after a lot of encouragement from many of the upperclassmen at the time, I decided to go “all in” on an ice cream business. I knew that as a broke college kid that I didn’t have the money, let alone the time it would have taken to start a creamy like I had hoped. So, I decided to start small and planned to manufacture prepackaged ice cream that I would sell at local fairs and events throughout the summer. I proceeded to spend the rest of the spring semester, what felt like Every. Waking. Moment., researching anything and everything about starting a business. I’ve shared before, but I vividly remember sitting in class researching freezers, and much to my satisfaction I chose the right one.

I would by no means ever try to minimize the grit it takes to run a business, whatever kind that may be, but starting a business completely from scratch is NO JOKE. It was a steep learning curve (and one that has never seemed to flatten out much over the past 6 years). I quickly realized that I had two primary problems when it came to getting this business off the groun

1. I had no idea how to make ice cream.

And

2. I had no idea where I was going to make this said ice cream.

I set out to solve my first problem: learning how to actually make ice cream. My brother, who was living in Traer, IA at the time, happened to live across the street from an ice cream shop. He encouraged me to go talk to the owner, Pam. She very graciously offered to teach me how she made her ice cream and after a single time making ice cream, I was sold. I proceeded to spend what little life savings I had on an Emory Thompson ice cream machine, a top-of-the-line machine that much like the freezer, has served me very well.

I then went about solving my second problem: figuring out where the heck I was going to make this said ice cream. My grandparents (who have since passed) were living at this super cool assisted living at the time. Cobblestone has a movie theatre, library, hair salon, pub (we all know Berniece was a big fan of that part), and an ice cream shop. At first, they had a soft-serve machine, and the residents and their families could go in and grab ice cream whenever they wanted. But after a few times of visiting, I realized the machine was out of order, like permanently. So, after striking up a conversation with the owners of the facility, I came to realize that the residents would often push buttons on/unplug the machine regularly, often spoiling the ice cream. It ultimately just became too much manage, so I offered a solution: I would provide ice cream for the residents in return for use of the ice cream shop space.

Because using milk from my own dairy farm wasn’t realistic at the time for a number of reasons, I decided to start off by using Anderson Erickson ice cream mix. In the spring of 2019, I purchased an ice cream pushcart (umbrella and all) and began selling my individually prepackaged ice cream cups at local fairs and events throughout the summer.

It became obvious very quickly the following spring that all the events I had planned for the upcoming summer would not be taking place. So I essentially had two choices:

1. Throw in the towel

2. Do what many scrappy business owners did at the time: pivot my business model

2020 proved to be an ideal time to implement home delivery as many people were working from home (and thus able to accept deliveries), and they had a little extra to spend. I also decided to partner with some other local businesses who had been affected by the pandemic by selling fresh produce, eggs, milk, cheese curds, and even shrimp! Oh, and beef from our family farm too! In the fall of 2020, I graduated from Iowa State and returned home to the family farm.

As things returned to normal the following summer, I decided to keep going with my home delivery model while also incorporating more events. The following spring, however, I decided that it was time to take action on making my dream of utilizing milk from our farm a reality. In May of 2022, I was awarded a Dairy Business Builder Grant to help purchase a shipping container creamy. Sounds crazy right?! But it’s just like it sounds. A company called Don’s Dairy Supply of New York takes used shipping containers (like those you’d see on a cargo ship) and makes a full on creamy inside of them. The container I designed from scratch came fully furnished with windows, doors, lights, flooring, drains, positive air intake, exhaust fan, hot water heater, air conditioning, the equipment needed for processing, and so much more!

I received my container creamery about a year later and was honored to have Iowa’s Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig and Representatives Latham and Ingels out to farm for a tour. They themselves have played a huge role in the advancement of the dairy industry in the state of Iowa, and they have even advocated for funding for producers in the state to help them innovate and increase efficiency within their operations.

In the spring of last year, I was blessed to receive some of that state funding to purchase a shipping container parlor. This milking facility will allow me to milk and store the milk of my own cows separately from the rest of the herd. This December I was also awarded another Dairy Business Builder Grant to assist with scaling my cheese curd operation! Stay tuned for more details on my most recent purchases!

In the meantime, I’ve been getting my ducks in a row on the regulatory side of things. Iowa follows what’s called the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance, a 423 page document outlining proper handling, storage, and manufacturing of dairy products designed to ensure farmers and processors are producing safe, quality dairy products for the public. While it can be daunting and even frustrating at times, I truly strive each day to make those outcomes a reality.

I’ve also been working on product development. Remember when I talked about that steep learning curve? Honestly, it’s never been steeper. I’ve always thought of myself as someone who learns best by doing, and with lots of help from industry professionals, I’ve been able to learn a lot in a very short amount of time. I can’t wait to share more about what I’ve been up to when it comes to that!

As of April 18th of this year (also my 25th birthday), I am officially licensed by the state of Iowa to start using milk from my dairy farm to begin making cheese curds!

Sometimes I tend to lose sight of how far I’ve come over the past six years since I founded Hightail not just professionally, but personally. In those six years, I’ve graduated from college, gotten married, and fulfilled my greatest dream of all: being a mom. I am reminded often of how much God has truly blessed me in this life, and how fortunate I am to be able to pursue a life-long dream at such a young age.

So, if you’ve been following along with these posts about my story, I just have one last thing to say: Whether you’ve been part of my story from the beginning, or if you just joined it, thank you for being part of it. I hope you’ll continue to support this crazy dream of mine and my pursuit of providing you and your family with only the freshest, best-tasting products around!

Oh, and I almost forgot! The name Hightail? It's the thing cows do when they get excited...like when the gates are opened to the pasture for the first time after a long winter! It's always been my mission to embody that wholesomeness into my brand!

Thanks for taking the time to read about my story, I can't wait to hear yours!

Tails up,

Natalie

Hightail Delivery

Plainfield, IA

History of Hightail