This mega-dairy, housing 25,000 milking cows, also acts as a calf-raising facility for regional Fairlife suppliers (including Rainbow Valley), with a capacity of over 5,000. Newborns are contained in illegal veal crates for five months and more. Calves suffer broken legs from rough handling, exposure to life-threatening heat and disease, and sedation to restrict movement. Dead calves are discarded and mixed with manure as fertilizer.

Newborn calves were violently torn from their mothers, while cows were stabbed, beaten with pipes, electrocuted in the mouth and reproductive areas. Cows were dragged with tractors with chain nooses over walls. Hundreds of dead calves were dumped bordering public lands. Every employee was caught committing animal cruelty.

Returning after the 2019 investigation that sparked a consumer protection lawsuit, ARM was hired for 3 months on these farms housing over 10,000 cows, to see if conditions have improved for the cows and calves. ARM captured hundreds of hours of daily egregious abuse to cows and calves, and confirmed daily sourcing of milk for Fairlife's Michigan plant. We encourage review of the Consumer Educational Milk Trace video.

On June 4, 2019, ARM released disturbing footage of one of its most grueling factory farm investigations. During the investigation, initiated in 2018, an ARM undercover investigator captured surveillance evidence of the systematic and horrific animal abuse occurring at Fair Oaks Farm's Dairy Farm Adventures, Indiana, USA.
Owned and operated by Mike and Sue McCloskey under the fairlife Corporation, Fair Oaks Farms is one of the largest dairy farm corporations in the United States. It has also repeatedly and publicly prided itself on 'acting as a window to the agriculture world' by providing complete transparency into a dairy farm's everyday operations.
Every year, Fair Oak Farms educates millions of people and provides public tours of the entire dairy process from farm to table. The fairlife website states that (the animals are) "Always in Good Hands." Despite these claims, ARM revealed what it considers to be the first realistic and honest audit of the Fair Oaks Farm and fairlife Corporation's operations, including the daily mistreatment of the resident farm animals, information hidden from the public.

Between February and April 2019, an ARM Investigator was hired as a milker by these Fair Oaks Farms dairies, capturing hundreds of hours of systemic cruelty. Founded by Mike MCCloskey and Owned by Select Milk producers, these dairies are core suppliers to Fairlife in spite of Fairlife claiming to have cut ties after being exposed in 2019. The cows are removed from their holding barns three times a day to be milked. Daily, employees hit and punched cows and hit cows in the udders with milking claws. Cows were poked, stabbed, and shoved with metal tubes and broomsticks. When cows in the milking line would not cooperate, frustrated employees bent and broke bones in the cows’ tails as punishment for not entering the confusing rotary system.

ARM’s investigation into Strauss Veal Feeds, a Fairlife affiliate, uncovered extreme cruelty towards calves in the veal industry. While working undercover for three months, investigators exposed criminal abuse, including brutal handling during transport, prolonged confinement in filthy 2.5 by 5-foot crates, and being forced to live in their own excrement. Calves were kept in total darkness for up to 20 hours a day, with ventilation and lights deliberately shut off to cut costs, causing deadly temperatures over 100°F. These findings revealed Fairlife’s deceptive animal welfare claims and its deep ties to the veal industry.

One of 4 investigations in 2019 that led to a $21Mil consumer protection lawsuit, this was the first ever cruelty investigation into an organic dairy, exposing egregious systemic abuse. Natural Prairie Dairy houses over 30,000 cows between its four locations. Donald DeJong is the owner and CEO, and the family owns over 15 Fairlife supplying farms. DeJong is the vice-chairman of Select Milk Producers and a Board of Directors member of Fairlife. He has strong personal and business associations with Mike McCloskey of Fair Oaks Farms and Fairlife. During its grueling investigation, ARM found the same disgusting conditions, abuse, and cruelty towards the dairy cows documented during its conventional dairy farm investigations. Investigators captured dairy cows being tormented daily. Cows were stabbed with screwdrivers, kicked, and dragged when unable to stand due to illness and fatigue. Employees repeatedly violently inseminated the cows. The ARM investigator witnessed Mother cows chased while giving birth, and the babies immediately ripped away from their mothers. A crucial component of this investigation also lies within the countless gross violations made by Natural Prairie Dairy regarding to the USDA’s organic dairy certification guidelines, including pasture grazing stipulations of no less than 120 days per year during the grazing season.