Once upon a time, the clatter of milk cans could be heard from one end of Star Valley to the other. Hundreds of independent dairies dotted the western Wyoming valley, earning it the proud moniker of America’s “Little Switzerland.”
Today, that economic empire has vanished, swallowed up by corporate consolidation that has shuttered many dairies across the country. Its cheese factory went first and then the milk trucks stopped showing up to take the valley’s surplus milk to market.
Family-owned dairies closed and subdivisions crept in to replace them.
Shumway Farms is the last of the legacy dairies left standing. For a time, it was in danger of closing like all the others.
But its founder, Jody Shumway, was too stubborn to let it go. The fifth-generation dairy farmer worked side jobs to keep his operation going.
When Wyoming passed its Food Freedom laws starting in 2015, that was the lever he needed. He leaned into value-added food products, finding new markets for his dairy’s milk, and eventually getting his son, Jon, involved.
Now the farm is getting ready to do something that hasn’t happened for decades in Star Valley.
Shumway Farms is preparing to expand.
That expansion has been slowly building, but it recently got a big shot in the arm from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which awarded the family-run dairy a $172,000 grant.
The grant will help Shumway Farms bust the logistics bottleneck in geographically isolated Star Valley, Jon Shumway told Cowboy State Daily. The dairy is hemmed in by mountain passes, making refrigerated distribution much more expensive.
“Wyoming is tough,” Shumway said. “We’ve been trying to work with Eat Wyoming out of Casper. She’s doing a little bit of distribution for us.”
That’s landed some of the dairy’s products in Casper regularly, Shumway said. But a year-round storefront in Cheyenne has so far been elusive. Its ice cream is sold during the summer, but their Wyoming skyr — a thick, yogurt-like product — is not yet available.
“Our distribution routes have to make sense to run,” Shumway said. “Especially in the wonderful world we’re living in, with energy prices being as they are. So we have to be able to justify running our truck wherever we are.”
Jodi Shumway, left, and Jon Shumway, right, talk about Shumway Farms retail store, where they sell raw milk, as well as pasteurized chocolate milk, skyr, and ice cream. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Wyoming skyr is made similar to Icelandic skyr, except Shumway Farms uses whole milk not skim. That makes it a creamy, full fat product that's in top demand. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Two flavors of Wyoming's Skyr. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
A pint of Shumway Farms ice cream. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily)
A Freckle On The Cow
Shumway Farms has been getting calls the last couple of years from out-of-state vendors interested in carrying their pasteurized ice cream and Wyoming skyr, a specialty yogurt inspired by Icelandic skyrIcelandic skyr that is thick, creamy and high in protein.
But out-of-state sales are a stretch for the small dairy, which is now milking around 48 cows twice a day. That’s about double what the farm was milking in 2024.
That may sound like a lot, but it’s actually quite small.
“In the grand scheme of things in the dairy world, we’re a freckle on the cow,” Shumway said with a chuckle. “But for us, yeah, things are going good. We’ve tried to grow smart. We’ve tried to grow at a sustainable rate.”
To make their next growth spurt happen, they’ll need to expand their dairy herd to increase production and figure out an economically feasible way to distribute refrigerated products out of the valley.
“It’s there,” Shumway said. “We just have to put all the puzzle pieces together.”
The grant is going to help with that, Shumway said.
Meanwhile, he is already finalizing paperwork that will enable interstate sales. The most logical expansion from there is nearby Idaho.
“I don’t want to get too big,” Shumway added. “There’s a certain level I’m looking for. We want to grow to a point where we can hire the appropriate amount of people.
"I don’t want to overwork my employees and I want to be able to take care of them financially. I want to be a business that contributes to retirement accounts and savings. That’s my goal.”
Shumway Farm's retail store is a bright red, but it's at the back of the farm, so can still be hard for customers to spot at first. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
The mountains surround Star Valley and give the Shumway Farms a beautiful vista. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Raw milk for sale at Shumway Farms. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Some of the swag available for sale at Shumway Farms. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily)
Government Out Of The Way
The Shumways have credited Wyoming’s Food Freedom laws with their success. That’s something that makes former legislator Tyler Lindholm proud, as he was one of the architects of the law.
But to him, that law was just government doing what it ought to do — getting out of the way.
“It’s not government success,” he said. “It’s not the Food Freedom Act success. It’s Shumway Farms’ success. All we did was get out of the way.”
Lindholm’s inspiration for the Food Freedom Act started at home, on his family’s ranch, with what he always called his grandma’s “town” cookies.
“She was just retailing chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies,” Lindholm said. “And they were great. Pat’s Cookies is what they were called.”
As a boy, Lindholm noticed his grandma baking her town cookies in the bunkhouse, which confused him. Why there when she had a perfectly good kitchen in her house?
“The bunkhouse isn’t as nice as her house,” Lindholm said. “But then, when I became older, I realized she had to because that’s the way the law is. And that really motivated me to call a spade a spade.”
Lindholm said one reason the economy isn’t working as well as it could is that too many laws have enabled monopolies to control important sectors.
In the case of food laws, it was shutting grandmas out of baking something as simple as a chocolate chip cookie for some pocket change.
“The big packers, the big-box stores, and what not,” Lindholm said. “Everybody was controlling our food supply. And Wyoming was able to take a very small step, and what we were able to produce by getting out of the way is truly transformational.”
Lindholm will soon travel to Missouri to share Wyoming’s success story with the Show Me State, he added.
Shumway’s success story will be one of the examples he uses to talk about how well things have gone with that in Wyoming.
“The reality is, most of the time, when you get out of people’s way, and you let folks self-govern, they do a good job of it,” Lindholm said. “And Shumway Farms, they’re just one story out of a million, but they’re a great story.
"They’ve done a fantastic job and they’ve proven that the model works. Small businesses will thrive with a smaller government involved.”
Jody Shumway looks at the date on a milk bottle from the three-year period when he was bottling pasteurized milk and selling it direct to consumer. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily)
An Agritourism Magnet
Shumway plans to continue figuring out what he needs to expand shipping. But, in the meantime, the world is increasingly coming straight to the farm’s back door.
There, tucked away in the rear of the family’s homestead is a bright red barn-looking structure. It’s actually the farm’s retail store.
While tough for passing motorists to spot from the highway, it’s become an agritourism magnet for tourists and wealthy out-of-state transplants who pass through Lincoln County on their way to Jackson Hole.
Inside the store, a huge chalkboard operates as a visual guestbook where travelers write messages, including their hometowns. Guests have come from California, Texas, Utah, Arizona and many places beyond.
Families can get scoops of hand-dipped ice cream with creative flavors — Grandma Judy’s Dessert, Papa’s Popcorn, and Praline Pastures. They can let children play in the sandbox, watch the active farm operate, or even pet baby calves.
To capitalize on their foot traffic, the family is turning part of the retail building’s upper level space into a small conference center. It will host local events, private meetings, and educational farm tours.
For the last legacy dairy left standing in America’s “Little Switzerland,” the future isn’t just about finding new markets. It’s also about keeping Star Valley’s heritage alive, one carton of skyr yogurt and one scoop of ice cream at a time.
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
