Farm Dairy Cuts Out The Middleman

Farm Dairy Cuts Out The Middleman 28-4-9 Randy Sowers and his family of Middletown, Md., run an old-fashioned creamery and retail store, selling milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream and eggs. They've also started selling home-raised beef, pork and chicken. In addition, they provide a home delivery service to almost 800 homes per week. In 2001, the Sowers bought their own production equipment and their first delivery truck. After 20 years of selling to a local co-op, they wanted more independence, control, higher profitability and the challenge that comes with it. They now process and direct-market two days or 20,000 lbs. of the production from their 250-cow, 1,500-acre dairy farm. This brings returns of about $48 per hundred weight, compared to sometimes as low as $10 after deductions from milk sold to the co-operative. The family raises their own replacement cows and has 1,200 chickens for "farm fresh" egg production. They also raise their own broiler chickens û 30 to 50 at a time, and hire a family friend to raise 20 to 30 hogs. The beef they sell comes from Holstein cows that are out of production, and all animals are raised in an all-natural environment. They do all of their own slaughtering and butchering as well. Sowers' delivery service caters to an area within a 60-mi. radius, and includes many homes in the suburban communities outside Baltimore and Washington. Besides their own products, the South Mountain Creamery retail store, also located in Middletown, carries a variety of food products made by similar, non-competing operations. The whole operation employs 10 people outside the six-member family. "About 60 percent of our income is from home delivery sales, 30 percent from the retail store, and the last 10 percent is earned by selling at farmers' markets and through a few outside retail stores that carry our products," Sowers says. "Our milk prices are competitive with what supermarkets are charging for hormone-free milk." Contact: South Mountain Creamery, Randy Sowers, 8305 Bolivar Rd., Middletown, Md. 21769 (ph 301 371-8565; fax 301 371-5936; email: milkdelivery@ adelphia.net; website: www.southmountain creamery.com).

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