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January 15, 2007

Milk Wanted | A boom in artisanal cheese creates new opportunities for sheep and goat milk producers

By Joseph R. Thompson
Browse the cheese selection in your local grocery store, and you're bound to find a wide assortment of artisan cheeses, made by hand in small batches. Look closer, and you'll find that a lot of those artisan varieties are made here in Maine, the result of a fast-growing market niche that has seen the number of boutique cheesemakers grow considerably in recent years.

But many of those cheesemakers are in a bind: They need more and more sheep and goat milk for their bries and chevres, but local supply can't keep up. That's why Keith Morgan-Davie and Beth Whitman are bullish on sheep and goat milk as a viable product for small-scale dairy operators around the state. "The gut feeling is that there's more demand than supply," says Morgan-Davie.

So to help grow the industry, the two launched the Maine Micro-dairy Development Cooperative, an organization in Whitefield that aims to educate and support small-scale sheep and goat dairies throughout the state. One way is to help nascent micro-dairy operations pass the state's quality marks to become a licensed dairy producer, which allows them to sell their product. "I think the biggest barrier for a lot of people is that it's not completely clear on what they have to do," says Whitman. "I'm hoping it really helps people get past the hump in getting licensed for small dairy operations."

Although goats and sheep don't spring to mind when picturing a Maine dairy, the state boasts several licensed goat dairies and two licensed sheep dairies. But while sheep and goat milk is still a relatively new industry in Maine, demand is increasing due to the growth of Maine's artisan cheese industry, which now includes 24 licensed cheesemakers, up roughly 20% in one year. In fact, cheesemakers in Appleton and Stueben hit it big on a national stage, in July winning awards for cheeses and yogurts made from sheep or goat milk at the American Cheese Society's annual competition.

The growth of the artisan cheese market convinced the Maine Department of Agriculture to give Whitman a $22,000 grant to help launch the MMDC this year. And when Whitman realized she needed help running the organization, she recruited Morgan-Davie, who she had met in 2003 while checking out his sheep farm in upstate New York.

The inspiration behind the MMDC was Whitman's experience running a small-scale dairy operation from Townhouse Farm, a former dairy farm in Whitefield she purchased in 2005. Whitman used milk from her flock of sheep in a line of yogurt sold to a handful of health food stores. But as her brand of "ewegurt," as she called it, began to expand to larger stores like the Whole Grocer in Portland, Whitman worried her operation would buckle under the growing demand. "My biggest fear," she says, "was that I was going to have more accounts then I could handle."

According to Morgan-Davie, the specifics regarding exactly how the MMDC will help educate existing farmers ˆ— and those that hope to be farmers ˆ—are still being worked out as he and the cooperative's advisory council identify each group's needs. However, the MMDC has put a few plans in motion, including setting up a members' discount with a dairy-equipment supply company in Wisconsin.

And one of the first concrete moves made by Whitman and Morgan-Davie was to address the high cost of launching a dairy. Even small dairies will spend as much as $30,000 to build a permanent milking parlor ˆ— a price at which many potential owners balk, according to Morgan-Davie. As a result, Whitman and Morgan-Davie used a $10,000 Maine Technology Institute grant to develop a prototype mobile milking unit ˆ— a ready-made contraption that costs around $12,000. (For more on the mobile milking units, see "Going mobile" page 25.) "The hurdle with a [permanent] structure is that they have to put all of that money up front," says Morgan-Davie. "The mobile milking unit brings that cost back in line."

Since its launch in September at the Common Ground Fair in Unity, the mobile milking unit has sparked interest in the group's mission. Its mailing list has grown from about 20 people to roughly 110 ˆ— a dozen of which Morgan-Davie is working with to help set up dairy operations. "I anticipate that we could ultimately see eight or 10 mobile milking units [in Maine]," he says.

A richer alternative?
It's not just farmers getting excited. Jennifer Betancourt, president of the Maine Cheese Guild, says she'd like to include more goat and sheep milk in the cheeses she makes at Silvery Moon Creamery, the cheesemaking operation she co-owns at Smiling Hill Farm in Westbrook. But at this point, there just isn't enough production to satisfy demand. "To be honest, it's hard to find goats' milk and sheep's milk," she says.

Artisan cheesemakers like milk from sheep and goats, says Betancourt, because of their distinct flavors ˆ— goat's milk has a distinctive tang while sheep's milk, she says, is very smooth ˆ— as well as their higher fat content. "Sheep's milk and goat's milk have more solids. They're richer than cow's milk," says Betancourt. "So, if you give me a gallon of sheep's milk or a gallon of goat's milk, I'm going to be able to produce more cheese than I could with a gallon of cow's milk."

And since a pound of sheep or goat milk will go further than a pound of cow milk, such milk could bring in more money to the farmer. Currently, farmers in Maine can sell sheep milk for about a dollar a pound ˆ— more than five times the government-mandated 17-cent minimum for cow milk.

But despite that price difference, few micro-dairies are self sufficient. For starters, sheep and goats can be milked only a few months out of the year compared to year-round milking for cows. What's more, Morgan-Davie says many sheep dairies don't charge properly for their milk. "The price is set by buyers because there are so few producers here," says Morgan-Davie. "And, most farmers don't enjoy marketing."

However, according to Betancourt, there's enough demand that many buyers are willing to pay a premium for sheep milk. "As a cheesemaker, it's important to me that they're covering their cost," says Betancourt. "If it's a quality product, people will pay for it."

Increasingly, people are noticing the demand. Terry Garner, a teacher who moved to Maine from Washington, D.C., bought Little Brook Farm in Alna in July 2005. While he knew he wanted seasonal agriculture to supplement his teaching income, running a sheep dairy wasn't a consideration until he read about Morgan-Davie and the MMDC in a local newspaper. Sheep's short milking season meshed almost perfectly with his school schedule. Since then, Garner has become, as he joked, their guinea pig.

Next season he plans on leasing the prototype milking unit from the MMDC as well as caring for Whitman's lactating ewes on his farm. Garner hopes to increase the size of his flock to about 45 sheep. "This is all OJT ˆ— on-the-job training," says Garner. "Keith and Beth are going to be my mentors."

Morgan-Davie says the early response to the MMDC has been encouraging, but he admits there are unanswered questions. In December he met with the MMDC's advisory board to discuss organizational options, from remaining a cooperative to becoming a for-profit or nonprofit organization. The MMDC also is trying to identify its target audience. "Do I want to try to enlist a lot of really new folks or do I want to get people who are already in dairying and get them licensed?" asks Morgan-Davie. "I've had requests for everything from the basic consulting business all the way up to folks who know exactly what it is they want, and they want to hire me to build it."

Maine Micro-dairy

PO Box 1, Whitefield 04353

Coordinator: Keith Morgan-Davie

Founded: July 2006

Service: The cooperative aims to educate and support small-scale sheep and goat dairies in Maine

Contact: 549-3239
mainemicrodairy@gmail.com
www.mainemicrodairy.org

Going mobile

It took Keith Morgan-Davie two months to assemble the prototype of the mobile milking unit, the 8-by-16-foot structure developed for the Maine Micro-dairy Development Cooperative.

The prototype, which uses a shell made by an Amish community in Houlton, is perched on skids and designed to be trucked to a dairy on a flat-bed trailer. Then, a farmer hooks the unit to water and electricity, and voila! ˆ— the milking station is ready to roll.

The inside of the mobile milking unit is divided into two rooms: The milking parlor consists of headgates and ramps to control the animals' movements, as well as a milking platform that holds up to six sheep or goats. Two animals can be milked at once, with the average sheep taking roughly 90 seconds to milk.

The second room ˆ— the milk room ˆ— includes a two-bay sink, hand sink, water heater, trash receptacle and dispensers and racks for storing gear. In this room, equipment is washed and sanitized after each use, and the milk is refrigerated before shipping.
Each unit costs roughly $12,000, a bargain compared to permanent milking parlors that cost dairy farms $20,000 to $30,000, says Morgan-Davie. And while he'd like to see 10 mobile milking units pumping away in Maine, he says the next one won't take him two months to assemble. "I could do it again a little bit quicker," he says.
Joseph R. Thompson

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