"To many people, the idea of getting up every morning to care for goats before work is not appealing. Add to that the daily task of milking 15 to 20 of these spirited animals, and the idea is completely appalling.
Two Central Kentucky farmers have dedicated years of preparation to making careers out of this daily ritual and will soon be making their dreams a reality.
Milking goats
Growing up in Harrison County, Todd Harp enjoyed milking dairy cows on his family's farm."I learned very quickly that the best way to get out of the tobacco patch was to milk," Harp said. "Not that milking is easier than tobacco, but I liked interacting with a live animal."
Yet when he finished college, he realized he just could not afford to start a dairy on his own. So he looked at alternatives to cows and decided to try dairy goats.
In 2001, Harp bought his first doe. As his herd grew and began producing milk, he started looking at marketing opportunities for goat milk. The first place he turned for advice was to his fellow dairy goat producers in Kentucky. Much to his surprise, he realized that most goat producers in the state just dumped their milk.
"Me being a penny pincher, I thought that is the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life," stated Harp. "Here is a perfectly good product that costs time and money to produce, and people were just throwing it away."
He discovered a few farmers who were using their goat milk to raise calves, which appeared to be the only market for the milk. Harp began feeding the milk he produced to calves but continued to look for a more profitable market for his goat milk.
Discovering goat cheese
In the fall of 2002, Susan Miller a freelance food writer in the Bluegrass area, went on a trip to the "New England Cheese Trail" with a friend. They decided it would be fun to sign-up for a one-day cheese-making workshop, and Miller feel in love with making goat cheese.
"I came and thought I would just buy some goat milk from a friendly neighborhood dairy goat farmer and start making cheese," said Miller. "I was surprised to find that there wasn't a licensed goat dairy in the state."
Since she and her husband owned a farm in Clark County, Miller decided she would just get her own goats and produce milk. So she purchased two dairy does, but having never worked with goats before, she went in search of help for this new adventure.
The partnership begins
In the fall of 2002, Harp got a call from Miller, asking if he would be willing to teach her about dairy goats. After her initial visit on the goat farm, Miller told Harp that she really just wanted to make cheese, not produce the milk.
"I said to Susan, 'That's funny; I just want to milk goats. I don't want to make cheese,'" explained Harp. "From that day, we began working together on this idea of me producing the milk, and Susan making the cheese."
As it turns out, Miller grew to love her goats and decided to build a herd of her own and use that milk, along with the milk she would purchase from Harp, for her cheese production.
In February 2003, Harp and Miller had their first meeting with the Milk Safety Branch to find out what was needed to develop a licensed milking facility for goats. Since there was not a licensed goat dairy operation in the state, it was not a simple process.
"Goats are so much smaller than cows so that everything from the manure issues to the milking equipment needs had to be scaled back from a traditional cow operation," explained Harp.
Harp, having had experience with a cow dairy, worked extensively with the Milk Safety Branch representatives to adjust the requirements to meet the needs of a goat operation.
Even hauling the milk to Miller's new USDA-certified cheese-processing facility has been an issue. The small amount of goat milk produced by Harp will barely cover the bottom of a milk truck, so Miller is working with officials to get approval to mount a small tank on a trailer and pick up the milk herself.
"The Milk Safety people have been great to work with on this project," Harp said. "At first they weren't really sure we were serious, but by year two in this process, I think they realized that we were going to make this a reality."
The cheese shop
Miller's dream of creating a cheese plant has developed in tandem with her goat dairy parlor. As she and Harp worked through milk safety issues, she has also been submerged in planning, zoning and the development details of her cheese plant.
"There wasn't anyone around here with experience in this, so I did the research and determined what I wanted the facility to look like," explained Miller. "Then I started working with inspectors, and it has been a learn-as-we-go process."
The plant building was completed in 2006, so Miller has spent much of the last year assembling the equipment needed in the facility and adding the final details to the operation. She has even gone beyond standard cheese operations and invested in an in-house antibiotic testing lab. Once she has met requirements and is officially approved by Laboratory Services, she will be able to test all milk on site, instead of relying on an outside lab.
"No one has tested goat milk in Kentucky before, but every single batch has to be tested for antibiotics before it can be used in the cheese," explained Miller. "It is a huge deal, so I decided to bite the bullet and buy equipment and get certified to test the milk."
Miller's final inspection of the cheese plant was completed in early June, and she has already begun making cheese with the antibiotic- and hormone-free milk from her herd.
Miller's fresh goat cheese will be sold under the name of her company, Bluegrass Chevre. Her initial cheeses will be a mix of soft cheeses with herbs, a variety of feta, and her signature cheese, Fleur, which is a white mold-ripened cheese.
Looking back through all the joys and frustrations ranging from learning to milk the goats to struggling through the endless paperwork to create a licensed facility, she still finds dairy goats captivating.
"Honestly, I look forward to going out each morning to be greeted by those pretty faces and wonderful personalities," said Miller. "This is truly what having a passion is all about."
Pioneers
Harp and Miller have learned, over their four-year journey through milk safety laws, health safety issues and equipment purchasing, that being a pioneer in a field is not easy.
It has been exciting at times, frustrating at others, but it has definitely been educational.
Working closely with the inspectors along the way, Harp and Miller have been able to overcome each obstacle in meeting the criteria for licensing.
Now that Miller's inspections are complete and Harp is coming upon his final inspection this summer, they are ready to move to the next part of their journey together.
"I've never been a pioneer of anything," said Harp. "It has become a quest to get it done, so I can't wait for the final inspection and the first load of milk to go out of here."