Sue McCloskey is a dairy farmer and the co-founder of fairlife, LLC, the innovative dairy-based health food company best known for producing the highly nutritious fairlife ultra-filtered milk®.
Prior to creating fairlife, she and her dairy veterinarian husband Mike co-founded Select Milk Producers, Inc., the sixth largest dairy cooperative in the nation today. She also co-founded Fair Oaks Farms, the fairlife flagship farm and the country’s largest & most recognized agritourism destination. A true pioneer in sustainable farming practices and responsible animal care, McCloskey ensures her businesses showcase true transparency in all their dealings, from the farms to the companies.
In fact, to engage and interact with consumers while combatting public skepticism of dairy farming practices, Fair Oaks Farms is open to the public year-round and hosts 500,000+ visitors each year. The farm campus was designed with interactive educational elements to edutain all visitors (young and old) because Sue believes everyone can have fun at the farm while learning everything about a modern working farm. Described as “the Disney World of agriculture,” guests learn all about sustainability and nutrition via hands-on activities and exhibits, ride on a bus that goes directly through a working cow barn, see cows being milked on a rotary carousel in the milking parlor, and even get the chance to witness a live calf birth. Guests also get to learn about sustainability when they see the full lifecycle of the flagship farm, from growing crops and feed to create a wellbalanced diet for the cows to the conversion of cow manure into methane to power the dairies. The remaining methane captured from this process is then made into compressed natural gas (CNG) to fuel their fleet of 42 CNG-powered milk trucks.
Also a well-respected ag-vocate for the farming industry, McCloskey is a prominent member of the speaking circuit and covers both entrepreneurial and dairy industry subject matters. She has presented on national and international stages—from South Korea to Scotland—at a variety of esteemed events like SXSW, TED Talks, dairy/farming conferences, and more. She also personally provides educational tours of her farm to large and small organizations (from governmental agencies to regional dairy farmers to retail groups) that want to learn more about dairy farming practices.
McCloskey lives in Demotte, Indiana … not far from the fairlife flagship farm where she also serves as its Creative Director. When not checking in on her cows, Sue spends her spare time cooking, riding horses, traveling, and tasting a micro-brewed beer here and there.