FEATURES
A Take Charge Dairy Ideal

by Wendy Komancheck
Wresting control to rescue Highland Farm

Calkins Creamery signage welcomes visitors.

As most farmers realize, the federal government doesn’t do much to help the little guy. Highland Farm, located in Wayne County, Pa., is owned by Bill and Debbie Bryant, who decided to go their own way when they realized that the 1980 government price for milk wasn’t going to change anytime soon. The Bryants know that they can’t compete with corporate dairy farms, and they observe that the government could control much of their farm’s destiny by raising and lowering milk prices each year.

The farm has been in the Bryant family since 1841, where they were one of the first farms in Wayne County. With finicky milk prices, Highland Farm might have been in danger of dismantling without the help and creativity of the younger Bryant generation. In order to keep the family farm intact, the Bryant children decided to move back to the farm to help their parents keep it running. The Bryant’s sons, Mike and Zack, help with the milking, and, Emily (Bryant) Montgomery, along with her husband, Jay, started Calkins Creamery, which specializes in artisan cheese.

Jay explains, “We’re only doing this to help preserve our family farm. The government’s cheap food policy is a killer for our type of farm. There is no relief in site. We believe we can move ourselves ‘off the grid,’ so to speak. The more cheese we sell, the closer we move to converting all of our milk to cheese milk. At that point, the government won’t be able to control our milk price. Right now, we don’t have control. Even though the current price is up, it will probably come back down, and the cost of production won’t. That’s the quandary.”

The start of Calkins Creamery

Jay and Emily’s return to the family farm was a smart one. Emily has a food science degree from Penn State University, and while living in California she completed a cheese-making course at Cal-Poly University in San Luis Obispo. Jay graduat-ed from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., with a degree in industrial engineering, and he has experience in the ice cream industry. The Montgomerys’ combined knowledge made start-ing Calkins Creamery, www.calkinscreamery.com, a logical choice. Jay says, “We believed that this category offers the highest margin and lowest capital cost for a farmer wanting to produce a complete product right on the farm. It’s also not as seasonal as other items, such as ice cream. In addition, the ancient art of cheese making fits well with our small farm, sustainable agriculture and conservation goals.”

The Holsteins that provide the milk for Calkins’ cheese.

Jay’s experience working in an ice cream factory comes in handy. He says, “The common threads include sanitation, food safety, raw dairy processing, etc. The general operations piece, including supply chain management and low-cost/high-efficiency manufacturing, are major advantages.”

An arrow on the side of the red barn facing the driveway directs customers to go around to the creamery.	A wheel of Calkins Creamery cheese

According to a press release from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, www.agriculture.state.pa.us, construction for Calkins Creamery began in May 2006, and Emily was making cheese by January 2007. The raw milk she uses to make the cheese comes from the 90 Holstein cows on the farm. The cheese making process works like this:

• The milk comes in through an underground, gravity-flow pipeline. Contamination risk is eliminated because the milk comes from the bulk tank in the barn straight to the cheese making room.

• Once it enters the room, Emily pours the milk into basins, which she heats to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Once it gets to that point, she adds cultures that transform the milk to the desired cheese flavor. She’ll also add rennet to solidify the milk.

• An hour later, Emily cuts the solidified milk into curds. The whey is drained from the tank and is fed to the pigs, or extra whey is added to manure to make soil absorption easier in the fields.

• Emily puts the semi-hard cheese into wheels. She doesn’t add any coloring, allowing the cheese to remain its natural yellow. Then, it’s put in a press to remove any remaining whey. Afterward, the wheels are placed into a temperature and humidity-controlled room to age. The semi-hard cheese must age for 60 days since Emily uses raw milk.

• The final product comes in Cheddar, Havarti, Gouda, Caerphilly, Tomme and St. Paulin, as well as new flavors, such as Vampire Slayer, a garlic-Cheddar and Four Dog Dill, with dill added to Havarti. The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture says, “The uniquely flavored varieties have been top sellers.”

• Each week, Emily makes 150 pounds of cheese, which translates into 1,500 gallons of milk used for each batch.

Back row, from left: Jay Montgomery, Bill Bryant, Deb Bryant, Carrie Bomgardner, Zack Bryant and Kate Bryant. Front row, from left: Emily Montgomery, holding baby Elyse, Doris Bryant, Mollie Bomgardner, Aiden Bomgardner, Ethan Bomgardner and Mike Bryant (deceased), holding Caleb Bryant. Bill and Deb are the parents of Zack, Carrie, Emily and Mike. Doris is Bill’s mother. The kids are all grandchildren of Bill and Deb.

Business logistics

Jay not only brings his ice cream-making experience to the Bryant family farm, but he also brings his marketing savvy, too. The Pennsyl-vania Department of Ag says, “Jay and sister-in-law, Carrie, developed the marketing pieces for the creamery. Jay designed and wrote the information for their Web site...”

It’s not just Jay’s marketing smarts that’s helping to get the word out about Calkins Creamery. Word-of-mouth, as well as selling the cheese at inns and gourmet shops, where most of the upper-middle class frequent and enjoy that type of cheese, has boosted sales. Calkins Creamery targets New York visitors as their main clientele, since New York City is approximately two and a half hours east of Wayne County.

Also, many of Calkins Creamery’s customers are moving into the area from nearby New York. Thereby, these folks come to the creamery to experience farm life, as well as to enjoy locally-made cheese. Jay says, “The ‘local’ aspect is our best selling point. People get excited to try our cheese just because they know where it comes from. They’re so excited that they can see it being made; the animals grazing and milking; etc. We like to think the quality is what excites them, but it’s really the local aspect, and then, the quality.”

Bill Bryant, fourth generation farmer on Highland Farm, on a windy November day.

In addition to well-thought-out marketing and business plans, Calkins Creamery joined with Pennsylvania Preferred state marketing program. Montgomery says, “We think the program was a wonderful idea, and we took time to apply the Pennsylvania Preferred logo to all of our chunks sold in Pennsylvania. However, I don’t believe that many of my customers pay much attention to the logo. We seldom, if ever, receive any comments on it. That’s possibly because we’re local, and [customers] already know we’re in Pennsylvania. But, if the state is going to spend money promoting Pennsylvania products, I think the money could be more effectively used if employed differently.” Still, Montgomery does believe that the program is a good one, and he would recommend it to other farmers in advertising their products.

Business dilemmas

Every business contends with challenges to overcome, and Calkins Creamery has faced some trying times. The Bryants and their spouses work hard, but farming doesn’t have immediate return on investments. On www.calkinscreamery.com, it states that the family lives on one income. Montgomery explains, “There are three primary households involved with the farm. One household is completely living off of the farm income, but the other two, the nonfarming partner has an outside job. We could never afford health insurance without the outside jobs. We hope that within five years, with the addition of the creamery, we can all be fully employed by the farm. We’ll see.”

Because of the financial concern, the creamery’s cash flow can become problematic. Montgomery says, “Raw milk cheese ages for a minimum of two months and often longer. We ‘pay’ the farm for the milk before we actually sell the cheese. This creates a cash flow imbalance that has to be managed closely during startup.”

Additionally, the Montgomerys aim to meet high quality standards, but sometimes the end result is less than what they prefer. He says, “Great cheese is often great right out of the gate. It takes time and experience to perfect the products, especially with respect to aging. We have a great start, and feedback has been very positive, but we want to be making award-winners in the near future.”

Farming is a 24/7 job. With a young family, time is a precious commodity. “It takes a lot of time to run a new business. We try to get as much face-to-face time with our customers and retailers. Seven days a week, we’re busy, and that’s tough when you’ve young children at home. It’s satisfying, but we’re working harder than we’ve ever worked [before].”

All of the Bryants and their spouses work hard to keep Highland Farm functioning as a family entity. They won’t cave to corporate and governmental pressures. Indeed, the addition of Calkins Creamery to Highland Farm moves them from dependence on government milk prices to independence by producing their own products. Plus, it allows them to interact with their customers and retailers in such a way that wouldn’t be possible on a corporate farm. Yet, there are labor pains to birthing a food business like Calkins Creamery. But, no one’s giving up because of the combined talents and tenacity that the fifth generation possesses promises to keep Highland Farm intact for another couple hundred years.

Wendy Komancheck freelances from her home in Pennsylvania. She writes about small business and agriculture. She’s always looking for story ideas. You can reach her at wendykomancheck@yahoo.com