These Dairy Farmers Sell Their Own Milk

These Dairy Farmers Sell Their Own Milk DAIRY EQUIPMENT & IDEAS Dairy Equipment & Ideas 30-3-6 Residents of Chatfield, Minn., population 2,275, can get fresh milk in glass bottles delivered right to their door by dairy farmers Bob and Jeannette Kappers. The Kappers also sell their milk at local stores and at an on-farm store that is self-service from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day. "The store is our best marketing effort of all," says Jeannette. "We stock it with milk priced at $1.75 per half gallon and chocolate for $2.50. We also offer Land O' Lakes butter and frozen meat processed at a USDA inspected facility." The farm store runs on trust. Prices for products are listed, and people leave the money. Getting the Big Red Barn Milk business started required lots of trust and community support, say both Bob and Jeannette. They credit the local bank, food market managers, and friends and neighbors for encouraging them. One of their biggest supporters has been their dairy co-op. "We use about half the milk produced by our 35-cow herd," says Bob. "The rest goes to Land O' Lakes. "And they buy our extra cream, which we aren't selling right now, and that takes a lot of extra work on their part," says Jeanette. "Our field man has been really helpful." Ironically, the farm they bought about 15 years ago had the remains of a bottling plant on it. After years of just milking cows, Bob decided to pursue his dream of direct marketing his milk. They stripped the old plant down to its studs. Bob turned to sources for dairy equipment that he had filed away over the years. "I started calling," he says. "Some of the equipment came from Texas, but most of it came from Ohio." "Bob has learned how to fix things and how things have to be timed," says Jeannette. "The cream separator alone has 93 parts, and it is cleaned twice before every use." One of the biggest challenges was getting up to state dairy processing standards. Here, too, their co-op field man was a lot of help. Another challenge was learning how to run the used equipment. With no business plan, marketing studies or milk processing experience to go by, Bob and Jeannette again relied on friends and relatives as they learned to process the milk. "We had a list of tasters as we developed our products, especially the chocolate milk," recalls Jeannette. "They have all signed up for when we expand to ice cream." So far marketing has been mostly word of mouth with limited taste sampling at local stores and sales at a local farmers' market. A dairy advisory team consisting of University of Minnesota Extension specialists, their banker, and others, advise them on new marketing efforts. With a year and a half under their belt, the Kappers have learned plenty. One of their biggest surprises was the cost of glass bottles, which has gone up, well over the $1.50 deposit they charge. "I would tell anybody starting out to buy more than they think they'll need when they start," says Jeannette. "Once you start, it is hard to raise the bottle deposit." One surprise to the Kappers and their customers has been the growth in sales of their skim milk. Jeannette notes that most people who first buy 1 percent switch over to the skim that is not homogenized. This FARM SHOW writer verifies that the skim has a better mouthfeel and tastes richer than commercial skim milk. The chocolate also tastes fresher and cleaner, perhaps due to the real sugar and high quality cocoa they use instead of corn syrup common with most chocolate milk on the market. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Kappers Big Red Barn, RR 1, Box 11, Chatfield, Minn. 55923 (ph 507 867-3556).

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