Attempt to go commercial

[sandhollerfarm]

Texas used to be a darn easy state to make and sell raw milk aged cheeses in.  Just get a food manufacturing license, no need for inspection (they get to it eventually - a year or so after your license is approved in seconds online), and go.  So that's what we were going to do.  BUT...then they went and changed the rules on me!  So starting this month, I now need several dairy licenses.  I thought this might be a good place to document my journey.

First and foremost, I like the guys that will be helping me get properly licensed.  The head of the Milk Group in Texas has probably spent hours on the phone with me just chatting about the proposed changes, then the draft rules, and finally the adopted version.  The head of the local inspection group fully admits that they are still getting used to the rules and I have asked questions that they don't even know how to answer.  Our first meeting with our actual inspector should be set up soon.

So we are looking to get licensed for being a production dairy (we have a small herd of goats) and then for cheese making.  We aren't sure if we are going to get a simple producer dairy license or a Grade A Raw for Retail (could sell raw milk).  I'd like the latter but the rules might be too stringent, we might not be able to find insurance and it just might cost too much.  The cheese making (from raw milk) can be done with either.  Our current cheese kitchen was constructed for our own sensibilities and not according to any code so we need to see what should be upgraded.

In the meantime, I am going to switch from focusing on fresh cheeses (mozzarella, chevre, feta, queso fresco, etc) and perfect a few aged cheese recipes.  I figure by the time we are fully licensed, I will have a few recipes up my sleeve and I can start out.

So I thought I would just log my journey here and see if anyone had any good suggestions for me!

[Tropit]

Good luck with this venture.  I'm anxious to read your posts on this subject.  We've thought of doing the same thing in CA.  The rules and regs are mind boggling!

~ C.

[Chris K]

Thanks for sharing your experiences. We can all learn from them.

As a friend once said, "...this is Texas. We either shoot it or run it down... don't matter. But that sucker is heading for the grill." 

[9mmruger]

Good Luck with your venture.  I hope all works out for you.

[sandhollerfarm]

Thanks everyone!

We've worked our way down the chain from the head of the department to the actual guy who would be doing our inspections.  Like everyone else, he is really nice and full of tons of information.  It was nice talking to him ans asking WHY certain things were required.  Although he's not involved in writing the codes, he could relate experiences as to why things are the way they are.  All of my questions were answered satisfactorily.

So the first thing is for us to submit 'plans' for our barn and milk house including a list of all the equipment we use.  I told him our equipment consisted of a single milk bucket and he said "good!  makes things easier for me!".  So hopefully it won't be too arduous for such as small producer as we are.

He did say one interesting thing.  In his experience, dairies with 15-20 goats "scrape by" and you need about 50-60 to really start seeing a profit.  I figure that's probably for starting from scratch and including all those costs.  We already have nearly everything in place so that's already sunk and won't factor in for us.  Hopefully that will mean we can stick to our 8 goat rule!

My blue cheese experiment is coming along fine too.  I think it's going to be great!

[Majoofi]

Wow I'm really excited to see how it goes for you. How many goats do you have? How much grazing land? I'm hoping you'll share your milk house plans.

[FRANCOIS]

Not to be a rain cloud but your inspector is correct.  I don't know of any small dairy that did borrow money, they built as they could and in the end make no money.  As long as you don't hire labour you are fine most likley, but there is only so much one family can do.  50-60 is a good rule to actually make a return, but then it becomes less fun and more of a job.  I have met a few people that absolutely, positively love love love their little farm and the long hours, no vacation, no pay, constant bills, broken equipment and sick animals.  Those people are few and far between though.  Good luck.

[TroyG]

I am located in Texas and we have been license for a couple years. We just finished our new commercial kitchen in March and purchased a pasteurizer / cheese vat. We started small with about 8 goats in milk when we were just selling retail raw, but now that we make cheese we need many more goats. If you have a good market you might get by with about 25-30 in milk. Now that is assuming you do not incur debt from your dairy before getting started. We hope to expand to even more in milk next year somewhere around 40.

[DeejayDebi]

Good luck Marrisa!

[smilingcalico]

Hi,
  To share a little experience, keep it simple.  I work at a dairy with 100 goats in milk, over 200 on the farm.  Even with a 12 goat milking system it takes about 5 hours to milk.  That's 10 hours a day, milking twice a day.  Choose your cheeses carefully, ones that won't take a ton of processing, fresh cheeses in particular.  Besides, their shelf life is extremely short if not vaccuum packed.  Don't sink too much money into the venture, that money will be slow to return unless you have a stellar product.  Seriously take time to accurately cost out your product.  Last but not least, raw milk isa hot

[spalko]

As an aside... you might want to consider consulting with someone about efficiency...
Thru put for small ruminants should be 60-100 head per hr.
Five hours is simply way too long, not to mention hard on the animals.

No criticism meant... I just see a lot of folks starting out who get discouraged because they spend so much time milking.
You don't have to have an expensive rapid-exit system to become more efficient...
there are many small things in the parlor design and layout that are inexpensive that can improve efficiency a lot.

Hope that helps...

[smilingcalico]

Thanks, Spalko.  I don't mind the criticism, as I don't own the farm.  Part of the issue is that the owner prefers that each round of 12 goats has a minimum of 15 minutes to eat grain, though the owners prefer 20 minutes.  There's a matter of about 10 minutes for each round to get in, mark off each goat (to ensure none have been missed, sometimes goats manage to get out and run back to the barn), wash, and strip.   We're pretty muddy here in Oregon, so sometimes udder washing takes a bit longer.  Keep in mind it's a 12 goat milking parlor, so we also have to restock grain for each round.  Any other criticism is helpful.