Keeping it simple

ATHENS, Wis. — Dairy farming and processing their own milk had been a long-time goal for Daniel and Elaine Beachy — and a change they felt necessary to ensure the future of their organic dairy farm.

“Processing my own milk is a dream I carried since we had started farming,” Daniel Beachy said. “When the opportunity came to get started, we felt like it was a step we needed to take.”

The Beachys milk 33 A2A2 cows at Clover Meadows Family Farm, their grass-fed, organic dairy. They milk their cows in their 20-stall barn, which they use as a flat parlor. After milking, the cows go out to pasture. During the winter months, they are housed on a bedded pack. Each of the Beachys’ cows have a name, and naming new calves is a family affair. 

The Beachys own 60 acres and rent an additional 150 acres. The majority of their ground is used for grazing.

The road to processing their own highly-specialized milk has been long.

Beachy grew up just over the fence from their present-day home. A couple of years after their marriage, the farm they currently reside on became available for purchase. The young couple took the leap in 2007, launching their family dairy farm.

Until recently, the Beachys focused on milking a herd of Holstein cows. As they switched to the grass-fed model, they began breeding their cows to breeds that are more efficient grazers such as Fleckvieh and Normande. Their cows are primarily bred using A.I.

When they began farming, the Beachys shipped conventional milk to Grassland Dairy Products. They began the process to transition their land and herd to organic production in 2012.

“I liked the organic idea,” Beachy said. “I didn’t exactly like all the spraying, chemicals and antibiotics, and it was also a better milk market.”

The farm was certified in 2015, and they began shipping organic milk to Westby Cooperative Creamery.

“I shipped conventional milk for eight years — I saw $9 milk and I saw $23 milk,” Beachy said. “You never knew what you could expect. On the organic side, we saw $33 milk and that was good, but soon after we were in it, that market crashed off.”

A desire to control the price received kept the processing dream alive in the back of their minds.

“We were at a place where we felt like we either needed to get bigger or start processing on our own,” Beachy said.

Three years ago, an opportunity arose to pursue their processing dream.

“I worked with a fellow that was processing milk and was looking to get out of the business,” Beachy said. “I was able to purchase the processing equipment and roll into what he was doing as far as a market and everything.”

The market that the Beachys inherited was a 100% grass-fed, A2A2 market for whole milk. The Beachys changed their management style, adopting their herd to fully grass-fed, and selling any stock that were not A2A2.

“The pandemic showed us there isn’t really a good connection between the farms and the store shelves or the table,” Beachy said. “We feel we have a better connection with our consumers by processing our own milk, bringing the farm closer to the consumer.”

The Beachys process an average of 25,000-27,000 pounds of milk each month from their herd. They bottle cream line whole milk and chocolate milk and make five flavors of a European-style drinkable yogurt — plain, raspberry, wild berry, vanilla and orange. All the flavors except plain are sweetened with locally sourced maple syrup.

“Our plant isn’t certified organic, although the farm is and all of the ingredients we use in the yogurt are,” Beachy said. “We just never went through that process to certify the creamery.”

Milk is bottled in glass half gallons and yogurt is bottled in quart-sized glass bottles, which the Beachys ask their customers to return to the stores from which they purchase. Chocolate milk and yogurt are also bottled in 12-ounce, plastic grab-and-go containers.

“I would say about 80% of our customers are really good about cleaning and returning the bottles,” Beachy said. “When we get them back, we spray and hand-scrub each one, then run them through a mechanical bottle washer to sterilize them.”

The Beachys wholesale their milk, delivering it themselves to about a dozen local stores within a 50-mile radius of their farm. They also work with an Appleton-based distributor that picks up weekly at the farm, stocking 25 stores in southwest Wisconsin. A Golden Harvest Market truck also picks up a weekly order.

“How much of each product we make depends on sales,” Beachy said. “Yogurt has an eight-week shelf life, while the milk has a 23-day shelf life. We can build up some stock on yogurt, but we run a tighter inventory on milk. I don’t like to process more than I need for the week.”

Throughout their three ears of processing, the Beachys say their in-store sales remain relatively consistent, year-round.

“That consistency in sales might be partly due to the specialty of our products,” Beachy said. “The cream line, A2, grass-fed milk is processed with low-temp pasteurization.”

The Beachys say it is rewarding to hear from customers who previously thought they could not consume dairy, but have discovered the A2 proteins in their products allow them to enjoy dairy again.

“What is the point of producing organic milk if it is homogenized and pasteurized to the point of killing all the beneficial things?” Beachy said. “We want to get our milk to the shelves as fresh and unadulterated as possible. Our goal is to keep it simple and get good food out to the people and provide for our family.”