dairy

Earth to cheese-eaters: Cows have to have babies to make milk. (Shocking, right?)

NYC food videoblogger Liza de Guia shot this little educational video on a recent visit to Calkins Creamery, an artisanal cheese producer in the Upper Delaware River Valley in Pennsylvania. In it, Calkins cheesemaker Emily Bryant commiserates with Amy Thompson of Lucy's Whey about the dismal state of dairy literacy among the cheese-eating population. Thanks for getting the word out, ladies.

Sullivan County farmer Bob Franklin has been making headlines lately -- for expanding his dairy operation at a time when many dairy farmers are in dire straits. (And for getting a visit from Congressman Maurice Hinchey, seen above admiring one of Franklin's calves.) At Pelleh Farms in Swan Lake, things are looking up, says the Times Herald-Record:

Bob Franklin has spent 20 years building a farm that cuts out middlemen, whether they be wholesale milk buyers, chicken processors or utility companies.

In that time, he has turned 66 acres of vacant land in Swan Lake into Pelleh Farms. The now-135-acre farm employs 32 people to process, package and ship milk and chickens. The farm also burns wood to heat water for pasteurization.

"If we cut out that middleman "» we create more jobs and the price is better for us," said Franklin, who also leases 170 acres to other farmers.  Read more

A tour group gets a close-up look at a manure storage barn, on a Watershed Agricultural Council bus tour of farms in the New York City watershed.  Read more

Sullivan County planners have been looking into building a small creamery, hoping to help the county's few dozen remaining dairy farms survive.

Not so fast, says local economic consultant Marc Baez. The Sullivan County Democrat reported last week:

According to Baez’s calculations – using what he termed “very favorable assumptions” – a creamery would be lucky to break even unless it diversified beyond simply processing and shipping fluid milk.

“The economies of scale work against all but the smallest and most specialized operations (e.g. on-farm cheese production) developed incrementally from the ground up or the very largest of facilities such as operated by the major players in the market,” Baez wrote in his report.

“Small- to medium-size operations focused on fluid milk do not work, and even specialized facilities only work at a tiny scale.”

“Your best bet,” he told the IDA board, “is to focus on yogurt, cheese and premium ice cream.”  Read more