Most Americans are fairly separated from the sources of their food. When you buy milk, meat and eggs at the grocery store, you don’t generally come face-to-face with the animals who produced it.
But if you make the drive to Kamas, Utah, you can get up close and personal with the cows of the famed Ballerina Farm dairy — and at the end, you can try their milk for yourself.
Ballerina Farm, one of Utah’s most well-known businesses, has grown from a farm to a globally recognized lifestyle brand that includes an online store and two brick-and-mortar locations. Hannah Neeleman, who owns Ballerina Farm with her husband, Daniel, has over 10 million followers on Instagram, where she shares snippets of farm life with a family of 11.
The farm opened its dairy for public tours earlier this year. Guests can meet and pet newborn calves and grown dairy cows and explore the barn. A member of the dairy team will lead the tour and explain some of the more interesting aspects of the Ballerina Farm dairy, such as the robotic cleaners and robotic milking stations.
At the end of the tour, guests can choose a Ballerina Farm drink to take home.
Mike Brown, a third-generation dairy farmer and consultant who works at the Ballerina Farm dairy, answered some questions about the dairy in a recent YouTube video. Brown shared the methods they use to ensure the health of their dairy cows, including regular cleaning, separating the cows’ sleeping and eating areas, and tracking somatic cell counts.
“That puts us in the top tier of any dairy in the whole United States when it comes to milk quality,” Brown said. “To get those kind of numbers, you have to be taking care of your cattle at a very, very high level, and we do that here at Ballerina.”
How to visit Ballerina Farm
The dairy tours form part of Ballerina Farm’s growing agritourism attractions, which also include seasonal events, such as an upcoming summer gardening workshop and a Spring Days weekend festival.
Dairy farm tours are held Thursday-Saturday from 1-2 p.m. at Ballerina Farm in Kamas, Summit County. You’ll know you’ve arrived when you see a big red dairy barn with the Ballerina Farm logo on its side.
Guests must purchase tickets beforehand, although admission is free for children under 10.
Wear closed-toed shoes and clothes you don’t mind getting dirty, as the ground can be muddy and animals may try to lick you if you get close.
Does Ballerina Farm sell raw milk?
Although Ballerina Farm previously sold raw milk at its farm stand in Kamas, the farm stopped production in August 2025. Hannah and Daniel Neeleman stated in a YouTube video in February that the move was done in order to focus on other, pasteurized dairy products, such as butter and yogurt.
That video was made in response to a report by KPCW, which alleged that Ballerina Farm had pulled its raw milk from shelves after two samples failed routine milk testing in May and June of 2025. In Ballerina Farm’s video, “Addressing Raw Milk: Questions with Hannah & Daniel,” the Neelemans stated that their team stopped selling raw milk not because products were recalled but because it wasn’t economic for their team and dairy setup.
Utah law requires each batch of raw milk to be tested prior to sale. Ballerina Farm raw milk that did not pass that testing was never sold to customers, the Neelemans said, and their raw milk has never been recalled or reported as a cause of any illness or fatality.
“One hundred percent of what went on the shelf to customers was tested, was safe,” Daniel Neeleman said in the video. He added that every agricultural product, whether that’s lettuce, meat or dairy, has a chance of contamination, which is why safety standards are in place.
“All of our products are tested, and they never make it to the shelf for the customer without passing that rigorous testing,” he said. “Have we had tests that have not passed? Yes, absolutely. Every farmer has batches of their product that are not fit for human consumption.”
Hannah Neeleman explained that the decision to stop selling raw milk came after learning that Ballerina Farm’s current dairy setup functions best for pasteurized products.
“The way our dairy is built, it’s more economic for pasteurized milk. When we were trying to do raw milk with the current dairy, it was requiring a lot of leg work,” Hannah said.
The Neelemans acknowledged that raw milk is a controversial subject. The CDC states that raw milk can transmit harmful bacteria and cause illnesses such as E. coli, listeria and salmonella.
“While good practices on farms can reduce contamination, they cannot guarantee safety from harmful germs,” the CDC states.
Pasteurization, which entails heating milk to a certain temperature in order to kill harmful bacteria, does not impact the nutritional quality of milk, per the FDA.
What does the future hold for Ballerina Farm?
The Neelemans’ first priority is their family, they stated in February’s YouTube video.
“Family comes first,” Daniel Neeleman said. “Love raising those dang kids. They’re amazing.”
But they love the Ballerina Farm business, too, and have big plans for it. They regularly tease new products and upcoming events on Instagram, and as the Deseret News previously reported, the 14-acre plot that includes their Kamas farm stand will continue to expand into a major agritourism site with orchards, farm animals and more.
“Daniel and I are both very entrepreneurial, and we have big dreams for Ballerina Farm,” Hannah Neeleman added in the video. “I feel like we’re just getting going.”
