{"id":2748,"date":"2024-04-01T16:25:23","date_gmt":"2024-04-01T16:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/how-cheese-is-helping-to-keep-a-5th-generation-dairy-farm-afloat\/"},"modified":"2024-04-01T16:25:23","modified_gmt":"2024-04-01T16:25:23","slug":"how-cheese-is-helping-to-keep-a-5th-generation-dairy-farm-afloat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/how-cheese-is-helping-to-keep-a-5th-generation-dairy-farm-afloat\/","title":{"rendered":"How Cheese is Helping to Keep a 5th Generation Dairy Farm Afloat"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Cows<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Between 2003 and 2020, the number of dairy farms operating in the United States has decreased by 55%.\u00a0 In 2020 alone, over 2,500 dairies (7% of all US dairy farms) shuttered, many of which were small farms that had been family-owned for generations.<\/p>\n

Small dairy farms face myriad challenges. The costs of fuel and labor are rising, due to inflation and a shortage of workers throughout the economy. Climate change has affected crop growth, leading to animal feed shortages and increased costs. Meanwhile, as operating expenses rise, the price dairy farmers earn for their milk has fallen. Large industrialized dairies are able to survive on increasingly tight profit margins; many small, family-owned dairy farms aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

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\"Feltz<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Feltz Family Farm<\/h2>\n

In Stevens Point, Wisconsin, Jake Feltz is working to defy that trend.\u00a0 In 2021, he became a licensed cheesemaker, producing curds at an on-site creamery on his family’s fifth-generation dairy farm.\u00a0 He sees expanding into farm-related businesses, including agritourism, retail, and cheesemaking, as a way for family-owned dairy farms to be sustainable in the long term.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

In the Feltz family\u2019s case, they\u2019ve had to contend with urban sprawl: surrounding land that was once farmland has been developed into a shopping complex.<\/p>\n

The family\u2019s foray into cheese started in 2017, when they opened Feltz\u2019s Dairy Store<\/a> on their farm.\u00a0 \u201cFinancially things were not going so well,\u201d says Feltz.\u00a0 \u201cInstead of adding more cows, which we didn\u2019t have the space to do anyway, the dairy store was a way to expand without taking up more of a footprint.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

At first, the dairy store sold curds made by another creamery.\u00a0 Over the next few years, Feltz completed the coursework and over 200 hours of on-the-job training required to become a licensed cheesemaker.\u00a0 Today, the dairy store sells curds Feltz makes on-site, and customers can bite into fresh curds minutes after they\u2019re produced.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

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\"Feltz\u2019s<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Local Cheese & Cheese Education <\/h2>\n

The store also sells specialty cheeses made by other local cheesemakers and locally produced chocolates, baked goods, honey, candles, soap, and maple syrup. A large window offers customers a behind-the-scenes peek at the adjacent climate-controlled barn, where 100 cows are cared for and automatically milked by robots. Another window provides a view of the creamery, where the first customers of the day can watch Feltz and his father Ken make day\u2019s batch of curds.<\/p>\n

Eventually, Feltz hopes to expand the creamery and produce other varieties of cheese.\u00a0 Currently, about 98% of the farm\u2019s milk goes to another cheese plant.\u00a0 Feltz would like to utilize more of that milk on-site, developing new products to keep customers engaged.<\/p>\n

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\"Cheese<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

In addition to the financial benefits, Feltz notes that the dairy store and creamery have provided an opportunity to bridge the gap between the farm and the surrounding community.\u00a0 \u201cA big thing for us is education\u2014teaching people what we do, letting people see it for themselves, and being open and transparent.\u00a0 We try to do as many tours as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny how few kids have a relationship with farming.\u00a0 When I was growing up\u2014and I\u2019m only 26\u2014lots of kids had a family member with a farm, a grandfather or an aunt or uncle.\u00a0 But in the last 15-20 years, there\u2019s really been a decrease in the number of farms.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Feltz\u2019s<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

The Future of Farmstead Creameries<\/h2>\n

Although the number of family-owned dairy farms is decreasing, the number of farmstead creameries is increasing, a trend that mirrors the growth of the artisan cheese movement dating back to the 1980s.\u00a0 In recent years, farmstead production in Wisconsin has grown faster than any other category of cheese.\u00a0 Other states where farmstead production is increasing include Vermont, California, and North Carolina.<\/p>\n

Feltz is optimistic about the future of small-scale, farmstead creameries.\u00a0 \u201cI think you\u2019ll continue seeing artisan cheese expanding, kind of like microbreweries.\u00a0 People like to see how products are made locally.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Between 2003 and 2020, the number of dairy farms operating in the United States has decreased by 55%.\u00a0 In 2020 alone, over 2,500 dairies (7% of all US dairy farms) shuttered, many of which were small farms that had been family-owned for generations. Small dairy farms face myriad challenges. The costs of fuel and labor … Okumaya devam et “How Cheese is Helping to Keep a 5th Generation Dairy Farm Afloat”<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1271,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[395],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-milk-and-diary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1271"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}