A cabin and an entepenuerial family = Udderly Smooth
Earlier in 2016 I had the joy of staying at the Red Cedar Lodge in Charles City, Iowa. While in this lovely place on a press trip with the Midwest Travel Writers, I found out that Lorraine Winterink, besides owning the Red Cedar Lodge along with her husband, also comes from an entrepreneurial family. Lorraine while being a busy mom, grandma and inn owner is also the marketing guru for Udderly Smooth, the popular moisturizing cream that all began with livestock and Lorraine’s father Bill Kennedy Sr.
“Dad is a registered pharmacist,” Lorraine said. Bill Kennedy Sr. started out in retail pharmacy but enjoyed the formulating aspect of the business so he moved to a pharmaceutical company that was all about formulating for large animals. This company produced udder ointment using a formula that had been developed over 40 years ago. “They made an udder ointment. The udder ointment was similar to Bag Balm® or a suave, it was a good product that was used to keep the cow’s udders smooth,” Lorraine explained. “At some point the farmers said it is a good product but it would be great to have a cream that is easy to use, pleasant and be effective.”
Taking what the farmers said to heart, Bill Kennedy Sr. left the company and started Redex Industries. Lorraine added, “He listened to what the farmers wanted and went into the lab and created Udder Cream, then later branded as Udderly Smooth.”
It wasn’t long before the Winterinks learned that women were using the udder cream for themselves so the product literally crossed over into the home. Soon Udderly Smooth could be found at the beauty counter first at Walgreens then later at Wal-Mart. After a model mentioned using Udderly Smooth on the on the Oprah Winfrey show, sales took off.
Quilters also found that the cream helped immensely with keeping their hands smooth after the damage the needles did to the quilter’s hands. As an added bonus it didn’t stain their fabrics. This new use for the product brought Udderly Smooth to quilt shows all over the country. “You will still find quilt shops carrying our products,” Winterink added.
The latest use for Udderly Smooth has been to cancer patients taking oral chemotherapy. While they miss some of the adverse effects of intravenous chemo, the oral medication causes peeling of skin on the hands and feet and Udderly Smooth has been found as a great moisturizer that combats the damage it causes.
I was thrilled to find some Udderly Smooth in the cabin and very excited when Lorraine sent a package my way to try on our farm. As a farmer’s wife, my hands and feet get dry especially during the long, cold winter months, and it worked well on my husband Keith as well. His hands get very dry and worn from working on machinery and in the weather year round. I keep a tube in my purse for travel to keep my hands in good shape while on the road.
What I thought was so amazing about the product was the beginnings, how its use in agriculture moved into human mainstream use, agricultural ingenuity at its best!“ Lorraine said, “Our claim to fame is that it is a water based formulation and it is an emollient mixture of various ingredients that lend it to be very soothing and healing to the skin from various irritants. For weather chapped dry skin, this is the product that works. Those poor cows were exposed to the elements calving and milking; and if those girls aren’t feeling good, they aren’t releasing the milk, the farmer’s yields are down and the farmer is not happy. That’s the reason it was made in the first place.”
For more information, log onto Udderlysmooth.com or check out their Facebook, Instagram or Twitter pages.
