James Henry Culler and his wife, Lavenia, purchased the land that would become known as Winter Springs Farm in 1872. They farmed the land and raised 10 children in the farmhouse built in 1868. One of their grandchildren, Robert L. Culler, remained on that land and started a dairy operation in the 1940s. That operation existed for decades and was passed down to his son, Donald Culler. The dairy operation continued until 2005, at which time the dairy cows were sold and Donald took an off-farm position and continued to row crop the ground. In 2015 Donald’s son, Justin stated his interest in coming back to the farm and growing the row crop operation as well as starting a seed stock Simmental herd. The rest, as they say, is history.

With the fifth generation interested in developing a beef cattle business, changes started happening in short order. The Culler homestead has been steadily upgraded with many more plans in the works.  One of the biggest changes and perhaps the most beneficial, was the demolition of the 1870s bank barn; it was not in good shape, so it was replaced with a 60’ x 112’ building that included a lean to area on one side, adjacent to the original barnyard. This area includes a state-of-the-art cattle handling facility and special pens for calving cows and their calves. Sale animals are also fitted and cared for in this area. This is the hub and it becomes extremely busy when we are fitting our sale animals and preparing for pictures.

Winter Springs Farm was placed in Agricultural Preservation in 2021, to ensure that future generations of the Culler family will be able to farm here if they want AND to preserve the land from being developed and filled with hundreds of houses, as Frederick County continues its pursuit of endless expansion. There are high hopes that the sixth generation of the Culler family will be interested in taking over the operation one day.

Winter Springs Farm Cattle started their online auction, Maternal Gems of the Mid-Atlantic, in 2023; this sale has continued to grow every year since, as the caliber of animals sold has continued to develop into one of the most elite sets on the east coast. Cattle from Winter Springs have found new homes in Indiana, Illinois, Nebraska, Florida, Virginia, Kansas, West Virginia, Maryland, and even Canada. 

We are most proud of the fact that we make our living solely off of this farm. There are no off-farm jobs for these owners. The farm IS their job.