Our Management Team

Gary Peterson spends much of his time repairing equipment, machinery and buildings. Gary also works to develop the plans for the dairy’s growth.

He has been farming at Four Cubs Farm since he purchased the facility from his grandfather, Arnold, in 1966. He is president of Grantsburg Telcom, a privately held local telecommunications company and has also served on the Farmer’s Independent Telephone Company Board of Directors for over 20 years. Gary is a member of the Dairy Business Association and attended the University of Wisconsin Agricultural Executive Management Program

Cris Peterson is in charge of financial records, payroll and personnel management. She is responsible for farm public relations and tours.
Cris has been farming at Four Cubs Farm since marrying Gary in 1973. She is a 1972 honors graduate of the University of Minnesota-Minneapolis with an education degree in history and geography. Cris served on the Board of Directors of Dairy Business Association and was a co-chair of the Wisconsin Department of Commerce Dairy 2020 Council. She also attended the University of Wisconsin Agricultural Executive Management Program.
Cris writes children’s books on agriculture, has been a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist and speaks frequently to schools, education professionals and agricultural groups on farming, literacy and writing.

Ben Peterson is in charge of the day to day operations. He manages the agronomy program, maintenance and animal nutrition. Ben maintains robotic maintenance, oversees construction and planning. He also does the financial projections and evaluations.

Ben is Gary and Cris’ oldest son and has been with Four Cubs Farm since graduating from the University of Minnesota in 1999. He has a degree in Agricultural Industries and Marketing with a minor in Agronomy. Ben served on the Board of Directors of Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin and currently serves on the Wisconsin Agricultural Stewardship Initiative Discovery Farms Advisory Committee. In 2012 Ben and his wife, Nicki, purchased a facility in Atlas, Wisconsin, where some of the farm’s heifers are raised. Their son Jake spends his summers working at the farm helping Grandpa. Their younger daughter Izzy likes to ride in the tractor with dad.

Ben and Nicki opened Brickfield Brewing in downtown Grantsburg in September 2018. The brewery has a Grain to Glass concept where we are growing barley to have custom malted for their beer production and also feed the spent grains from brewing back to our cows.

Nathan Brandt joined Four Cubs Farm in October 2014 as the Dairy Herd Manager. He manages the cow-side of the operation which includes monitoring cow health, reproduction, genetics and nutrition. Nathan leads our cow-side team of employees to improve production, milk quality, and cow health daily.

He graduated from University of Wisconsin – River Falls in 2012 with a degree in Animal Science and a minor in Food Science.