| Ohio dairy markets its milk on ‘natural’ market demand |
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By Jolene Craig
Ohio Correspondent
POMEROY, Ohio — Creating a superior quality product with a commitment to sustainable agriculture and biodiversity is the driving force of Snowville Creamery in southeastern Ohio.
“It starts right here on the farm and goes onto the table,” said Warren Taylor, owner of Snowville Creamery.
Taylor, a self-proclaimed “dairy evangelist”, is a dairy technologist with a lifetime of knowledge of dairy farming and products. “I have been working and living in dairy my whole life,” he said.
According to him, the farm and dairy operate on the belief that everyone deserves good milk and dairy products, which are only created through certain practices. His practices include Snowville Creamery using milk from local neighboring dairy farmers who use natural grass pasture grazing methods.
The farm at Snowville Creamery, located about 20 minutes outside of Athens, includes 350 acres of pasture, which is a product of five years of using Management-Intensive Grazing (MIG). This technique, also known as rotational grazing, is when a farm is sectioned off into several different pastures and those are used in a rotating sequence. By giving pastures periods of time to rest, plants are encouraged to grow and recover before that area is used again for grazing.
While forage growth allows for the potential of profit growth by meeting individual animal gain or gain-per-acre goals, Taylor said turning cows out to fresh pasture every time confines them to a relatively small space. “When they only have a small amount or space to graze in, they aren’t given the option to cherry-pick the plants they prefer,” he said. “When they can’t choose what they eat, their diet becomes more diverse and the flavor of the milk is not as affected.”
Because the farmers use natural grass pasture grazing for their cows, their milk is sweet, rich and high in protein. It is also a good source of Omega-3 and Conjugated Linoleic Acid, (CLA); both of these fatty acids are essential to human health.
“These acids are not as abundant in most milk, which is produced commercially by most dairy farms in this country,” Taylor said. “This is likely because their diets are corn-based.”
Although the cows at Snowville feed mainly on grasses, they are given grain twice a day as a treat while being milked. “They know when it is time for their grain and will wait outside the barn to be milked,” Taylor said.
He added the use of corn silage as the main – and sometimes only – food source in the vast majority of dairy farms does not create a superior dairy product. “While it is economical, corn silage is not what cows were meant to eat,” he said.
The health and fertility of the cows used for Snowville Creamery’s products is the focus of the facility. From the beginning of the dairy five years ago, the cows used have consistently had a fertility rate above 90 percent, with the 2009 fertility rate at 99 percent. The creamery and the farms that provide its milk use the fertility of the cows as a key marker of the health and quality of the animals and their milk.
“This is a comment on the methods used here,” Taylor said. “We’re not trying to say that this is the best way to dairy-farm, but we are saying there is a different way than what is now being done in most farms.”
The milk used at the creamery comes from a variety of dairy cattle breeds, including Guernsey, Jersey, Brown Swiss and Friesian, provided by three Meigs County families who share the creamery’s dedication to producing the healthiest possible milk for people, cows and the environment. To make sure the milk is as healthy as can be, antibiotics are not allowed in the milk and growth hormones, including rBST.
“We prefer to follow nature, and that desire does not include hormones,” Taylor said.
Along with keeping the cows healthy and happy, Snowville Creamery does not use the commercial method of ultra pasteurization, but minimally processes its products. “We give the milk the absolute minimum heat for pasteurizing allowed, “Taylor said. “The minimal pasteurizing is one of the reasons our milk tastes so good and different from other milk you find in stores.”
He said there has been a progression of mainstream dairy farming to techniques that are focused on producing the highest volume of milk, without much care to the quality of the product. Ultra pasteurized milk is sterilized at more than 280 degrees, while he said Snowville pasteurizes at 170 degrees for less than 20 seconds. Along with minimal pasteurization, the creamery does not homogenize, which means there may be some cream on top of the milk.
“We’re making milk that is changing people’s lives, changing the way they view milk,” Taylor said. “And I say all we’re doing is making milk as good as it was 50 years ago in America. That’s all we’re doing.”
Not only does Snowville Creamery produce Grade A fluid milk, but it also does the sales, marketing and distribution of its products from the same small facility, Taylor said. The majority of the dairy herd and processing plant are outside of Carpenter, Ohio, on land owned by dairy farmers Bill Dix and Stacy Hall, who also provide a large amount of the creamery’s milk.
“The heart of the plant is the production room,” Taylor said of the 600 square-foot facility. “By having it very small, we are able to remain economical and efficient.”
The creamery is also dedicated to sustainable farming and being environmentally aware by keeping its carbon footprint as small as possible and conserving the natural resources around it. The processing plant was built from recycled materials and was constructed to save water and electricity, through design. One unique element of the office and processing building is the bathroom, which includes a composting toilet.
“The wastewater from the facility is neutralized and used to irrigate the pasture,” Taylor said. “We are doing what we can to be as environmentally conscious as possible.”
This includes using packaging made of lightweight, renewable paper instead of plastic, which requires as much petroleum material as eight paperboard milk cartons.
While Snowville Creamery is committed to healthy cows, superior quality products and environmental sustainability, its products are not organic. “We are not certified organic because the grain we feed the cows during milking is not certified organic,” Taylor said. “We believe that by using the dairy practices we do, we provide an alternative to organic products, which tend to be more expensive and of lower quality.”
Snowville Creamery produces about 45,000 gallons of milk per month and just about breaks even, with $2.5 million in sales per year. The creamery products include whole milk, lowfat milk, fat-free milk, half-and-half and whipping cream. Taylor said they plan to begin making cheese in the near future.
“We have modified an old sea shipping container and attached it to the main facility to be our cheese processing room,” Taylor said. “We hope to continue expanding in this way.”
Snowville Creamery products are now available in many stores in Athens, 29 Whole Foods Market stores in Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and the Washington, D.C., area, as well as in Kroger and Giant Eagle stores in Columbus, Heinen’s in Cleveland and Remke in Cincinnati. |
| 9/22/2010 |
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