{"id":2975,"date":"2024-11-15T04:26:17","date_gmt":"2024-11-15T04:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/how-red-barn-farms-is-supporting-family-dairy-farms-in-wisconsin\/"},"modified":"2024-11-15T04:26:17","modified_gmt":"2024-11-15T04:26:17","slug":"how-red-barn-farms-is-supporting-family-dairy-farms-in-wisconsin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/how-red-barn-farms-is-supporting-family-dairy-farms-in-wisconsin\/","title":{"rendered":"How Red Barn Farms is Supporting Family Dairy Farms in Wisconsin"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Terry & Paula Homan Photo Credit Red Barn Family Farms<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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With a background in veterinary medicine and animal husbandry, but no experience in making cheese, Terry Homan launched Red Barn Family Farms<\/a> with his wife, Paula Homan, in 2008. After all, great cheese is made with great quality milk. And without healthy cows, there is no quality milk.<\/p>\n

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A Commitment to Small Family Farms
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Their business model is unique in that they make very intentional choices about milk sourcing. Only family-owned and family-operated farms in Wisconsin, all of a small scale, are selected.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnimal husbandry [is] the primary ethic upon which we believe our dairy farms should operate,\u201d says Terry Homan, about their Appleton, Wisconsin, business. \u201cOur motivation to launch and operate Red Barn Family Farms is to help preserve it as a business model into the future.\u201d The creamery works with seven small, family-owned dairy farms in Wisconsin\u2014all committed to animal welfare and producing the highest quality of milk.<\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s other goal is ensuring dairy farmers are paid a fair wage for their cows\u2019 milk, used to craft artisan cheese under the Red Barn Family Farms\u2019 label. By partnering with Door Artisan Cheese Company in Egg Harbor, Wisconsin, as well as other Wisconsin creameries, the Homans can focus on what they do best: animal husbandry and working with farm partners.<\/p>\n

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Simple But High Quality Cheeses<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Red Barn Family Farms Cupola Artisan Cheese. Photo Credit Wisconsin Cheese<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe focus on very simple cheese recipes, without extra flavor or ingredient add-ins, so that we can really highlight the quality and natural goodness of our carefully sourced milk,\u201d says Paula Homan. \u201cFor example, when creating our original recipe Cupola cheese, our focus was not on finding the perfect herb or pepper, or fruit to make the cheese unique, but rather on finding the right culture cocktail that would make our milk the star of the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

its Vintage Cupola Artisan Cheese<\/a>\u2014a semi-hard cheese that\u2019s a blend of gouda and parmesan aged for three years is an award-winner. Red Barn Family Farms also produces two other Cupolas, each aged for less than three years and in 2019 its young Cupola was also an award-winner.<\/p>\n

Appropriately named for Red Barn Family Farms\u2019 origins, a cupola is at the top of traditional Wisconsin barns. The Homans worked with the Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to create the cheese recipe. It\u2019s handcrafted in small batches.<\/p>\n

\u201cCupola\u2019s unique texture is firm but supple \u2026 fruity and nutty with notes of caramel and toasted pineapple,\u201d says Paula Homan. \u201cMade in nine-pound wheels with raw milk and aged for a minimum of nine months \u2026 Cupola combines top-quality Red Barn milk and a recipe that took four years to perfect. An original recipe variety takes a bit more effort to market, but once people taste Cupola they are hooked.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition to Cupola, Red Barn Family Farms\u2019 line of cheeses include Heritage White Cheddar (aged from one to five years), two New Zealand-style cheddars (Edun Raw Milk Cheese and Vintage Willow Creek Cheese), Monterey Jack, Colby Jack and Weis Cheddar (cloth-bound and wax-dipped, and aged between one and three years).<\/p>\n

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Support for Ethical & Humane Dairy Farming<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Red Barn farmer, Tim Busch, and his beautiful herd of Ayrshires Photo Credit Red Barn Family Farms)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Good cheese is, of course, worth the wait and there\u2019s no better example than the four years it took to roll out Cupola. But it\u2019s also because the Homans didn\u2019t just work with any dairy farmers. They sought out those that are family-owned and family-operated\u2014a requirement\u2014and share their commitment to animal husbandry.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur milk-sourcing decisions are determined by our mission, which is to advocate for ethical and humane dairy farming,\u201d says Paula Homan. \u201cThey must follow \u2018The Red Barn Rules\u2019 to ensure not only the cleanliness and quality of the milk but also the health and welfare of the cows. All farms are certified by the American Humane Association. Our farmers milk an average of just 55 cows that are known individually by name and personality and receive very personalized care.\u201d At these farms, the cows are pasture-raised, spending time outside daily. (Weather permitting, of course, as Wisconsin winters can be chilly.)<\/p>\n

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How Fair Prices Ensure a Rosy Future<\/h2>\n

\u201cWithout our fair-trade pay model, our Wisconsin farms would receive commodity prices for their milk,\u201d explains Paula Homan. \u201cThey wouldn\u2019t have a say in what they earn for their milk. Drastic price fluctuations in the commodity market can be very challenging to weather for farms. Commodity-milk prices have not kept pace with ever-rising operating expenses. In a commodity environment, a farm is most likely to survive if it expands or consolidates. Our fair-trade pay scale is not tied to the commodity market and is intended to help our farms remain viable business models. Our fair-trade model incentivizes excellence, because our farms can earn more for their milk by meeting or exceeding high standards for milk cleanliness\/quality as well as animal health and welfare.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the median age of a Wisconsin dairy farmer clocking in at a minimum of 55 years old<\/a>, according to the Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin their retirement is not that far away. Once they do retire, who will take over the farm if a family member is not interested or available? The Homans are invested in educating the next generation of farmers as a fool-proof way to keep the momentum going. They\u2019ve committed to a goal over the next two years of focusing on the youngest generations of Red Barn Family Farms\u2019 partner farmers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a current Red Barn farmer looking to retire and hoping to transition the farm to a young couple looking to begin farming,\u201d says Terry Homan. \u201cOne of our farmers is a recent college graduate and first-generation farmer (Olivia Hennes) working on getting her farm infrastructure established to be Red Barn-style for her entire career. Our focus is to support this next generation of farmers who rely on animal husbandry as the primary foundation of their livestock care.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Terry & Paula Homan Photo Credit Red Barn Family Farms With a background in veterinary medicine and animal husbandry, but no experience in making cheese, Terry Homan launched Red Barn Family Farms with his wife, Paula Homan, in 2008. After all, great cheese is made with great quality milk. And without healthy cows, there is … Okumaya devam et “How Red Barn Farms is Supporting Family Dairy Farms in Wisconsin”<\/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-2975","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\/2975","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=2975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2975\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}