Jolynn McClelland’s parents didn’t exactly demand that she continue the family business. Both came from long lines of West Marin dairy families, and they knew the work was getting harder. They wanted their kids to have choices.
“There are people who have stayed in because they feel this immense family pressure,” Jolynn said. “My family, they actually were kind of discouraging of this line of work, because they just saw the challenges.”
Jolynn went to Santa Rosa Junior College and then Sonoma State University with an interest in becoming an elementary school teacher. But she never got her credential—the pull of dairying was too strong. Today, she runs two organic dairies with her husband, Robert McClelland, including the historic L Ranch that her grandparents ran for 50 years on Point Reyes.
“I think for most people it’s a calling,” she said of the dairy business. “It’s very deep. There’s nowhere else you would rather be.”
Jolynn, whose family name is Mendoza, grew up on the B Ranch, the penultimate windswept dairy on the road to the Point Reyes Lighthouse. Generations of Mendozas, who traced their roots to the Azores, had been running B Ranch and other dairies on the point since 1919, first as owners, then as tenants of the National Park Service.
Jolynn’s mother, Linda Mendoza, also comes from dairy families, the Dolcinis and Lafranchis. Her brother, Jarrod Mendoza, still leases the B Ranch, where he milks a small herd for Straus Family Creamery.
“I was born when it was already a national seashore. That’s all that I’ve ever known,” Jolynn said. But her childhood was typical of close-knit farming communities everywhere. Her grandparents, Joe and Scotty Mendoza, lived right across the yard from her house, and with several farmworker families living on the property, there were always other kids around. Life on the ranch afforded her a comfort around animals.
“I loved being with the cows,” Jolynn said. In 4-H and Future Farmers of America, she got the chance to raise her own dairy cows, which she said “had a huge impact on my life.”
Bob McClure, who ran his family dairy at the I Ranch before scaling it back last year, has known Jolynn since she was born. Anyone who grows up on a dairy at Point Reyes feels tied to the place and to milking cows, Mr. McClure said, though many have switched to less water-intensive beef ranching or else moved away.
“All those families were dairy families at one time,” Mr. McClure said. “It’s a little bit of heritage. You’re proud of that and you don’t want to give it up.”
Jolynn said she is proud of her family’s tradition. But she is passing on the same openness to change to her sons, 14-year-old Collin and 10-year-old Luke, that her parents instilled in her.
“I’ve told them both: do this because you really, really love it,” she said. “This doesn’t bind you to doing this forever. As of right now, one is completely uninterested in continuing, which is totally fine, and one is interested.”
Dairying has been fraught with challenges for most of Jolynn’s professional life. Part of the reason for her parents’ reservations about passing on their livelihood was the increasing difficulty for small dairies to compete with giant farms in the Central Valley. But soon, the organic market opened a new window of opportunity for West Marin’s producers, most of whom already grazed cows in the pasture for much of the year.
Robert McClelland, who also comes from several generations of Marin dairy farmers, opened his organic dairy in 2005, a year before he and Jolynn married. They milk 260 cows at the Robert McClelland Dairy near Valley Ford, part of the Organic Valley cooperative.
After Jolynn’s grandparents passed away in 2008, their conventional L Ranch operation ended and the family sold the cows. But soon after, with the lease still open, Jolynn and Robert saw the opportunity to begin their own smaller 150-cow organic dairy in the seashore. They sell that milk to another broker, Sierra Organic.
Yet challenges have returned with the organic milk market fading and drought wreaking havoc on reliable weather patterns. Jolynn said thankfully, the wells on both her dairies held out during the dry season, but she had to buy supplemental organic feed because the pastures were dry and inadequate. She said her small and “wonderful” staff of farmworkers are to thank for the dairies’ survival.
Without a doubt, Jolynn’s own flexibility and resourcefulness have helped her business weather the challenges. “She’s really on top of every aspect of the business, from animal welfare to employee relations,” said Melissa Lema, the field representative for Western United Dairies, the trade association that helps farmers manage regulations. “Jolynn is one of the first people to call me when something new comes up. She wants to know: How can our dairy adapt?”
Ms. Lema added: “She has a good balance of ‘This is something we love, it’s in our blood, so how do we make it work as times change?’”
Jolynn’s pragmatism and adaptability were evident when a group of environmental activists sued the National Park Service over ranching in 2016. She helped organize meetings of the seashore’s agriculturalists, and served as the secretary of the Point Reyes Seashore Ranchers Association, helping them deliver balanced input.
“She’s driven but she’s really willing to listen,” Mr. McClure said. “The lawsuit was stressful for people, but I was always impressed that she was able to listen to both sides.”
More recently, Jolynn initiated meetings with other ranchers to discuss water quality concerns, which have been a flashpoint in the debate over land use in the seashore.
Opposition to ranching in the seashore “can be disheartening,” Jolynn said. “It hurts when people say your job is obsolete or old-fashioned. I sometimes wonder, though, whether we’re just hearing from a very loud minority. But I also think that it speaks to agriculture in general, beyond the seashore. We haven’t done a good job telling our story.”
With her characteristic balanced approach, Jolynn later added: “Sometimes, these challenges are what keep you on your toes and make you a better operator.”
Jolynn, who went to West Marin and Tomales High Schools, has remained deeply committed to the Shoreline Unified School District, serving on the Shoreline Acres Preschool board for five years and sending her sons to school in the district. People who worked closely with her on the preschool board and in the dairy world expressed awe of her ability to juggle her commitments.
Daphne Cummings, the preschool director at Shoreline, said Jolynn’s deep ties and trust in the agricultural community were one of her strengths on the board.
“She has a really good grasp on the history of the community,” Ms. Cummings said. “If I’m wondering how the community is going to feel about something, she always gives me a balanced perspective.”