Foster Farms Dairy in Modesto
Billy loved dairy food and all things that could be derived from milk. Interestingly, he was also a vegetarian and loved to work with cows. He had grown up on a small organic farm spent much of his early childhood out in the pasture playing with the cows. There was a calf that had been born on the same day as Billy and the family named it Joel. The connection is obvious and also true. Billy Joel was his parents’ favorite musician and both Billy and the cow were named after him. It was an odd legacy by as if deemed by fate the cow and the boy got along famously and were good friends through all of Joel’s life.
When Joel was sixteen his parents sold the farm and they moved into a house in Fresno, California. Billy enjoyed the city but always missed living on a farm. By the time he was ready to go to college he was certain that he wanted to study dairy farm practices and he sought out the best agricultural programs across America.
He was also a daily runner and a long distance bike rider. Last year when the Tour of California, as part of the UCI America Tour and the USA Cycling Professional Tour, arrived in Modesto, Joel was there to watch Lance Armstrong cross the finish line. He drove down with his family while he was home visiting and while he was in Modesto he remembered that Foster Farms is located there. On their last day in the hotel Modesto Billy asked his parents to go with him to our the dairy. They happily agreed as they too missed the farm and dairy life. They were all stunned by the size of the Foster Farms area and Billy thought this would be a great place to gain some experience before he tried to open a farm of his own. His parents were happy that their son had such a passion for dairy farming and would enjoy visiting him on his own farm someday, but reminded him that he had little to no experience with chickens.