Hope Refuge Farm is a small, family farm, nestled in the Appalachian Mountains of southeast Kentucky.  We’re breeding and raising Irish Dexter cattle, American Miniature Jersey, and a cross of Dexter and Mini Jersey, known as Belfair, Irish Jersey or the trademark name Belmont.  Our goal is to produce high quality, truly dual-purpose, purebred Dexter breeding stock, and to raise and train small family milk cows for sale at an affordable price.

L to R: Brenton, Hannah, behind her is "adopted" college student: Nick, Joel, Jeff, faithful friend: Bandit, and Kim.

Our family – Jeff, Kim, sons Brenton & Joel and daughter Hannah – have always loved the country life. We’ve spent years gardening organically, raising chickens for our own eggs, and enjoying our Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horses.  Then we decided we needed a mini-sized family milk cow to produce our own “junk”-free milk & dairy products.  But when we realized how difficult it is to find said cow, we decided to develop a breeding program.  We’ve focused mainly on the Dexter, because they’re more available and not as expensive as the Mini Jersey, and there’s a well-established network through the Dexter associations.  We currently have one Mini Jersey cow, and two Belfair offspring of hers in our herd, and will be working on building the Mini Jersey part of our herd over the next few years.