Tucked away off Governors Highway at 5406 W Hilltop Rd, Luz Farms, LLC is reinventing the farming trade. As a Latina-Owned business, Luz Elena and Daniel Klotz have been farming corn and soybeans on their property since the late 80’s, offering pork, grain, and honey. This will also be their third-year cattle ranching, and their second year raising vegetables and microgreens in their greenhouse through regenerative farming.
During my visit to the farm, Daniel encouraged me to hug Stacey, their 1,150 lb cow. He told me the ins-and-outs of raising beef and what makes Luz Farms’ farm-to-table products so unique. They’ve moved towards not only raising several cattle and selling beef, but also into agritourism. In 2020, they were inspired by European farmers who began offering cow cuddling to support their customers’ mental health.
That’s right— cow cuddling.
“And then what they were doing over there in Denmark, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, is that they were opening up the dairy farms and the farms for people to cuddle cows because they were being socially challenged during this COVID crisis. So, I said, you know what? I think I could do this.”
Cow cuddling is an interactive experience which invites humans to interact with these farm animals. “So, usually, we do a meet and greet when it's outside, we'll just walk away, and our customers will lay down in the grass with our animals, and they'll talk to them, brush their fur, and take a bunch of photos, things like that,” Daniel shares. Through this service, they hope to educate people about the animals, showing them where their food comes from, and to also show them how lovable farm animals can be.
Luz Farms hopes to show their visitors the benefits of cow cuddling and what it can do. “We had a lady come who only had some weeks to live with terminal cancer. Her nurse found us. This is what she wanted to do, and she had a lot of fun. She didn’t have the strength to stand on her own, but we went outside, and she laid with Yogi in the grass. We also had an autistic boy, nobody could touch him or hold him, but when mom and dad were here, he would hug Reba and he fell in love with her.”
The proof is in the pudding. Folks as far as Minnesota, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Wisconsin have visited Luz Farms to cuddle their animals. This service is not specific to cattle, either. Luz Farms also offers goat snuggling, too!
