It’s no secret commitment and farming go hand in hand. For Bryan and Molly Benson of Benson Dairy, LLC, that resilience is particularly strong in their farm’s history. As fifth generation dairy farmers, their success has been a culmination of not only their own strength and determination, but that of the generations before them.

“I think farm families are just a resilient group,” explained Molly. “We’re thankful for the foundation Bryan’s family started for us to keep building on.”

Throughout the years, the Benson family had faced a fair number of trials. “The farm was started in 1870 by my great-great grandfather. In the 1970s, my grandparents lost their entire herd to sickness, causing them to have to start over with new cows. The original home on the property also burnt down at one point, but they rebuilt and kept going,” said Bryan.

This history of resilience helped guide Bryan and Molly through their own challenging time on the farm.

“Farming Chose Us”

Bryan grew up on the family farm located in Cadillac, Mich., and when an opportunity presented itself for Bryan to take over the operation, he jumped at the chance. He worked alongside his parents for five years before transitioning to farming full-time on his own.

Molly also grew up on her family’s dairy farm – only she was a state away in Wisconsin. “I saw growing up how challenging farming could be, and never expected to return to it,” Molly explained. Her family had stepped away from farming to pursue other opportunities when she was in sixth grade. She remained connected to agriculture, however, through working for an agricultural sales company in Wisconsin after graduation.

Bryan and Molly met through a mutual friend at church and quickly started making plans for their future together. “I actually remember Bryan sitting me down when we were dating and telling me, ‘I want to farm, and this is the amount of debt I want to get into. If you’re ok with that, we can continue this relationship’,” laughed Molly.

Inspired by Bryan’s vision for the farm and their plans for the future, the couple got engaged in March of 2018. “It was a really exciting time, and we were just looking forward to getting our life started together,” said Bryan.

An Unexpected Turn

Bryan and Molly had been making plans for expanding the farm. At the time, Bryan was milking around 140 cows, which was the size of the operation he had grown up with. “We were planning to double our herd size and were working on building a new barn with robotic milkers,” said Bryan. “It was an exciting step for us.”

One week after getting engaged, and three weeks away from completing the construction, the unthinkable happened. The barn caught fire and burned down.

Molly, who at the time was still living in Wisconsin five hours away, remembered when she heard the news. “I got a video call from Bryan, and he just said, ‘My barn is burning down right now.’ I didn’t even believe him until he flipped his phone camera around to show me. I was speechless.”

“I actually called a local farmer I knew and asked them what they thought the best thing I could do to help was. They told me right away the most important thing was to just go be with Bryan. So that’s what I did,” Molly said. “I hopped in my car and got to Michigan around midnight.”

The barn was a total loss. “I remember thinking, ‘Is this it? Do we just give up?’” said Bryan. “By Monday of the next week though, I had decided we were going to rebuild.”

“I was kind of surprised, but not really,” said Molly. “It all happened so fast, but knowing Bryan and how determined he is, I wasn’t surprised he wouldn’t let it stop him.”

By the end of that month, they had already set plans in motion for what they needed to do to rebuild.

Bryan had taken out a farm construction loan with GreenStone after watching his parents work with them for decades. “We still had some funds available with GreenStone, and we were able to use that money to buy trusses for the new barn and new robotic milkers,” explained Bryan.

Their challenges weren’t over, however. “The builder we had used originally wasn’t able to build the new barn, so we had to find a new builder,” said Bryan. “Even though it was a challenging process, GreenStone was with us through it all.”

New Growth

Despite all they had faced in the past few months, Bryan and Molly continued with the construction of their new barn in June, only three months after the fire.

That summer was full of exciting moments, as they also got married that July!

By October, they had finished the build and were ready to start moving cows over to the new barn. Through their new robotic milkers, they were able to milk more quickly and efficiently than ever before.

“We’ve continued to expand ever since,” said Bryan. In late 2021, they added another addition to the barn and added two more robotic milkers through financing from GreenStone. “We were up to 340 cows with six robotic milkers.”

At that point, the Bensons had started working with their current financial services officer at GreenStone, Autumn Rector. “We were introduced to Autumn in 2021, and she’s been a part of the growth of the farm ever since. She’s been great to work with. We’ve never had a bad experience working with anyone from GreenStone!” Molly said smiling.

In June of 2025, the couple expanded again and took in another 180 cows from a neighboring farm, adding four more robotic milkers to a facility down the road from their farm.

“It’s been rewarding seeing the kind of growth they’ve experienced,” said Autumn. “Getting to work with them and seeing them be successful after the challenges they faced while first starting out is very inspiring.”

Bryan and Molly, along with their four children who are the sixth generation of Bensons to live on the property, continue to look towards the future of their farm and their family’s legacy. “We’ve always known what our goals are and will just keep pushing forward,” they said.