Welcome to
Coopers Knoll Farm
We are a small farm on 10 acres in Pataskala, Ohio. When we moved here, our intent was not to start a farm, much less a petting zoo farm. God had bigger plans than we intended and we have just followed along. In February 2022, we thought it would be great to have a few chickens. So, we started with 12 chickens that we raised in our basement. The ducks at the store were also SO cute, we couldn’t resists - and we also came home with 6 Sweedish Blue ducks - also raised in our basement (never again - WHAT A MESS!!).
That seemed to appease us for a while, but Jena, being the complete animal lover she is, really wanted to get some goats! Less to mow, and how fun would that be!
So, in January 2023, we got our first 2 goats - Peanut and Oreo. Both were the youngest of triplets and were rejected by their moms, so our family raised them as bottle babies. We loved having them! They brought so much joy to us!! We started looking into raising meat goats, but the more we looked into it, the more our direction changed.
Jena fell in love with the very popular highland cows! We found two of them (Fozzie and Everest) at Knuckle Bump Farms in Seabring, Florida, and purchased them in November 2022 - but had to wait until they were weaned and could be transported up to Ohio. We started constructing and designing our pastures, barns and layout of the farm. The cows were set to arrive on April 13, the day after Jena’s bday. About 2 weeks before they were supposed to come home, the breeder had a sale that couldn’t happen with one of her heifers, knew we were still looking for one and asked if we could take her - and then Winnie the Moo instantly became part of our herd!
We had also found babydoll sheep and decided they would be fun to have and our kids may want to show them, so we embarked on purchasing a couple of sheep from Blair Homestead in Kentucky. Our one lamb was born and then Abby contacted me to let us know they were going to focus on their highlands and asked if we would be interested in the entire flock! After some discussion, we decided to go ahead and purchase the entire flock of 10 sheep! Our transporter ended up picking up the sheep on his way with the cows - so on April 13, we gained 10 sheep and 3 cows in one day!! What a DAY!
When the highlands came home, we started getting tons of messages about visiting them. So April 16, I asked Richard if he would be interested in opening up to see if anyone would sign up to visit. We opened 5 spots each Saturday in May thinking we may fill one or two of them per Saturday - and we ended up selling out every Saturday! From there, we have changed, grown, added animals, lost some animals and have continued to get to know our community!
We have enjoyed the healing powers that the farm has provided to those who have visited, the giggles of small children when they get to feed the sheep or get slobbered by a cow, the joy in the faces of those who have visited after some life event of hurt or pain, the peace on the faces of families who have been able to disconnect from the world for even just an hour, and connect with each other through the love of animals.
This is our dream for this farm. We connect with our own kids through the love of our animals, spending time away from screens and in nature learning to care for more than just ourselves. We hope this place will be a ministry, a sanctuary and a source of forever memories created, joy for families and even special events to remember forever!
Meet the Family
Richard and Jena Cooper are the owners of Cooper’s Knoll Farm. They have two sons, Noah is 10 and Jonah is 9!
Richard works full time as a High School Principal. He didn’t grow up on a farm, but with family in Alabama, he would help move cattle and enjoy the country life when he visited his Uncle there!. With attending sports events for work and the farm, Richard doesn’t have a lot of extra time. But he serves on the Board of Zoning appeals for the city of Pataskala and serves on the Praise Team at Shepherd Church of the Nazarene and plays bass and drums! Richard enjoys playing video games and watching Star Wars (every single version) with the boys! Richard is the “man behind the scenes” at the farm. Or as he says, the man behind the “honey do list”. While he is the more reserved one of the family, he loves to talk about the animals and show them off to all who visit!
Jena grew up on a 100 acre farm in Millersburg, Ohio. It was mostly a crop farm of hay and corn, but she did raise animals such as cows, rabbits and pigs and worked on a horse farm when she was in high school. She participated in 4H growing up and loved the program! Jena never wanted to be a farmer, and had no intentions of doing so, when God showed he had different plans. Jena has always had fish or animals of some kind around, but never imagined in a million years Richard would agree to over 80 animals! She works full time as well as a sales manager for an education company based in Los Angeles. She travels occasionally for work, but is hoping that schedule will remain lighter. Jena was a teacher and loves educating the public on the animals at the farm and working especially with the children that visit. Jena also sings on the praise team at Shepherd Church and directs the church choir there as well. She served this year on the discovery team for strategic planning at Licking Heights as well.
Noah and Jonah are loving being farm boys! They enjoy working with the animals, although always will complain about the “chores”. They like school for the most part, but would always rather be home! They both are in piano lessons and are in the Goats R Us 4H club. Their first year of 4H was this year. They took their goats, Lilo and Nani where they placed 3rd and 4th in the Pack Goat competition and Jonah won 1st place in his class in the obstacle course with Nani. They had an AWESOME first year! Next year they plan to take goats and may add a couple more animals to the mix!
