A Michigan farm family builds a thriving operation by layering livestock, a farm store, events, and social media into a cohesive business model
By Claire Smith
One of the many challenging aspects of running a diversified business is fitting all the revenue streams together in a way that makes sense for you and your team. Seasonality, labor availability, weather, and location are just some of the variables you need to work around.
Ridge and Lindsay Bollheimer are a young couple tackling the challenge head on. By all accounts, they are succeeding and are carving out their niche at Lane View Farm in Cement City, Michigan.
Lane View Farm sits on 46 acres, with a house, a few barns, pasture, and fields for growing feed. It isn’t a sprawling row-crop farm, but its impact goes far beyond the local town. Ridge and Lindsay have built an operation based on the skillset, interests, and goals for their growing family.
Livestock are the backbone of the farm, in the form of more than 30 beef cows, 20 sheep, a handful of pigs, goats (just for fun), and chickens, all kept in easy access and view of the visitor. And they see a lot of visitors; in 2025, an estimated 5,000 people pulled in the driveway. They let kids collect eggs from the nesting boxes, and folks can feed the pigs snacks.
Most visitors are there for Lane View’s newly renovated farm store, where beef, pork, chicken, lamb, and eggs are sold. Investing in technology to allow for self-service has allowed them to welcome people onto the farm seven days a week instead of just two. The store also allows for experimentation. Seeing the tallow trend take off, Lindsay began to process the suet from their beef into tallow. Now skincare and beauty products are sold in the store and online to a loyal following. Baking mixes, candles, and coffee with themed tumblers are artistically displayed for sale. They’ve begun making artisan dog treats in all sorts of shapes and sizes that have landed on shelves at retailers in nearby cities.
That may seem like a lot to keep up with, but … there’s more! Moving from the old milking parlor (now the farm store) to the main floor of the barn, visitors walk into a beautiful event space. When Ridge and Lindsay bought this parcel of barns and outbuildings, they knew they wanted to get married in the traditional big red barn with old beams dripping in character and charm. They replaced the floor with wide planks, added fairy lights, and made it the perfect evening.
Today, that same space has more than paid for itself with their hugely popular farm-to-table dinner experiences in the summer and winter. These evenings include a catered dinner featuring Lane View Farms beef, live music, and the experience of eating in a picturesque environment. Capacity is 96 people, and the tickets sell out within days. Ridge says, “We’re all about experiences and following one thing to the next. We had New York strip steak — how can we utilize that? We have sunflower fields that we love to walk around in — let’s host a dinner.”
Those sunflowers he’s talking about are yet another very social-media-sharable experience the Bollheimers have created. When not working on Lane View Farm, Ridge and Lindsey work for Lindsay’s family’s business, Meckley’s Flavor Fruit Farm. The couple had visited a sunflower field to take pictures early on in their relationship. She immediately went back to her family and pitched Sunshine Acres as a way to get folks to come to Meckley’s. They planted a field of sunflowers, betting that those posting photos to social media would flock to the picturesque background. She was right. Sunshine Acres started hosting flower festivals every weekend and now hosts national country music artists and dinners out in the orchard. With help from the whole family, Meckley’s offerings include corn mazes, apple and pumpkin picking, a full bakery, and brewery.
When asked how they get people out to their area, the prompt response is “socials.” Lindsay has a skill in showing their life as farmers online to audiences across the country. Thousands of followers between personal and business accounts means in-person traffic for their farm store and events and sales through the online store.
The couple is always talking about potential new revenue streams. As Ridge says, “To us, being an entrepreneur and owning our own business and farm is the American dream. No matter what challenges we face each day, we wouldn’t have it any other way. Our roots will always feel right at home living and working in agriculture.”
In his spare time, Ridge is a benefit auctioneer for fundraisers and charity events around the country. About 50 percent of his time is dedicated to Lane View Farm, and the rest is split between Sunshine Acres, Meckley’s, auctioneering, and guiding hunts at a whitetail deer ranch in northern Michigan.
In the future, raising a family on the farm and being involved in 4-H with the kids is really important to the Bollheimers — their first child was just born. They’re always looking to grow their livestock capacity and hay production for a larger retail footprint for their meat.
Ridge and Lindsay have followed their curiosity and interests, which have naturally expanded their operations and revenue streams. Not everyone needs to open a farm store and start posting to social media, but there’s value in at least assessing what’s interesting and possible on the farm. Here are some ideas to get you thinking:
- If you’re rotational grazing with smaller livestock, like goats or sheep, are there solar farms nearby that could use some grass management? For goats, what about people in town who want poison ivy and other brush cleared?
- If the public is already coming to your farm for pumpkin picking or U-pick apples, can you plant heirloom popcorn to sell as well? Sell the whole ear and they get to shell their own popcorn! If you plant a few colors, it turns into fall decor when hung up on the front door as wreaths.
- Is there old cleaning equipment in a shed that could be fixed up and put to use? Is there a parcel of woods that needs to be timbered? Is double cropping an option?
The next generation of farmers won’t all look the same, and that’s the point. It takes a long view to see some decisions bear fruit, but when your work aligns with your values, the time flies by.
