Transcripts

MARISA HELMS: Earlier this year, milk prices took the biggest drop in history. This month, dairy farmers from around the country are voting whether to keep the current milk pricing system or throw it out. Starting up a cheese operation in this business climate seems unusual, if not downright risky.

But Brad and Kevin Donnay, two brothers from Central Minnesota, say they've seen the future of dairy farms and it's goats, not cows. But this view of the world didn't come easily. Brad Donnay's first response to the idea?

BRAD DONNAY: I said, you're crazy. I ain't milking no blankety-blank goat.

MARISA HELMS: But his skepticism was surpassed by a desire to keep the family farm thriving for a third generation. So he listened more to a friend's idea.

BRAD DONNAY: And I said, we'll think about it. And he kept showing me more information and more information. And the numbers really looked good. So about 18 months ago, we bought our first goats. We bought 50, 52 doe, kids, and a couple of bucks.

MARISA HELMS: And the Donnay family farm was recreated. There are still some cows on the farm. But it's mostly goats now. Since goats are so prolific, the herd now stands at 250. On any given day, about 40 goats are milked. Six goats at a time are hooked up to the same automated milkers used for the cows.

The Donnay brothers can also use the same processing equipment for either goat's or cow's milk. The biggest adjustment converting a dairy farm from cows to goats is the drop in production. One cow will give 60 pounds of milk a day compared to about 7 pounds from each goat.

But quantity, or lack of, is what makes goat cheese production so profitable. The market can't meet the high consumer demand. The goat cheese market's been growing at about 20% a year for the last five years. And there's no sign that's going to let up soon even though at the grocery store, goat cheese costs almost twice as much as cow cheese.

New York food expert Steven Jenkins is a cheese connoisseur. He says the demand for goat cheese is based on three basic ideas.

STEVEN JENKINS: First of all, it's because it tastes so good, and it's so versatile. And second of all, because people are aware that goat's milk cheeses and goat's milk products are-- produce a lot less, measurably less cholesterol than cow's milk products. So there's that appeal.

Third reason would be that people have traveled a lot over the last two decades. And they want to recreate an experience that they had in Europe or wherever. And very often, that includes some product that's made with goat's milk, albeit yogurt or ice cream or cheese.

MARISA HELMS: Jenkins says goat cheese producers all around the country are desperate to produce more cheese to keep up with demand and stave off competition from traditional goat cheese countries, like France and Spain. The brothers' Stickney Hill Dairy has made some big strides into the goat cheese market. Twin Cities stores, like Wedge Co-op and Whole Foods Market, now carry Stickney Hill cheeses. But younger brother Kevin Donnay admits selling goat cheese to their rural neighbors will take some doing.

KEVIN DONNAY: Local Minnesota people are not going to really go out and buy a bunch of goat cheese just because growing up, everybody had that stinky barnyard goat that chewed up everything and stood on top of your car. So goats around Minnesota have a bad connotation.

MARISA HELMS: But goat cheese is big business. And Stickney Hill Dairy stands to cash in. The brothers want to expand the operation. They've got a 20-year business plan that includes going completely organic over the next few years. And Brad Donnay says, one day, they'd like to help create a goat dairy industry in Minnesota so that more and more farmers can move into some aspect of goat cheese production.

BRAD DONNAY: Currently, there's nobody in the state of Minnesota, I believe, that is buying goat milk and processing and either bottling it or making it into cheese. So hopefully, as our business grows, maybe we'll start buying outside milk increase as our market grows and then create a milk market. Maybe there will be a dozen farms, you could say, in 10 years from now locally that we buy milk from.

MARISA HELMS: The Donnay brothers are up for the challenge, Brad says. Both grew up on the farm, learned their marketing savvy in college, and have come back to Kimball, Minnesota, to continue their family's dairy legacy.

BRAD DONNAY: I could have got a job pretty much anywhere. And I wanted to raise a family on the family farm. And I didn't go into farming to be poor. I mean, I don't want to be a poor farmer. I want to make a good living at it and raise a family on it.

MARISA HELMS: Stickney Hill Dairy is only one of two goat cheese producers in Minnesota. It seems that Brad and Kevin Donnay represent a new generation of farmers, who can save the family farm through diversification and an open mind. In Collegeville, I'm Marisa Helms, Minnesota Public Radio.