Re: U.S. Goat Milk Market


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Posted by Bernice on March 27, 2001 at 14:01:27:

In Reply to: U.S. Goat Milk Market posted by Amos Blood on March 27, 2001 at 10:26:44:

Hello Amos,

We used to live in what some New Yorkers near NYC referred to as upstate, near Buffalo. We always never considered that upstate, Albany was. anyways, we raised nubians when we lived there and knew of some folks who raised goats in our area and sold their milk to the cheese plant that Carnation Milk owned. But then with withering economics the cheese plant went out of business as did the local Amish cheese plant too. That was a real loss as the cheese was great!
In NYS, near Hudson, is the Coach Farm, they raise goats and process milk and make cheese, have quite a big operation with one of the best in the business managing their herd. I don't know what the situation is now in NYS as we moved 7 yrs ago, however, at the time it was becomming difficult to sell milk without going grade A.

Here in VA, which by the way, we are moving from, the milk regs recently changed, Our Gov signed into law a bill prohibiting the sale of raw milk or milk products. This is a costly adventure and we are looking for a better farm so we can accomplish this. But in the meantime we sell fudge which is not regulated under the milk regs here, even the new ones. And we also make soap as well. I would suggest finding your niche and seeing what product you make best if you would rather not go grade A, if however, you would rather pursue Grade A then you could definately reap those profits, well.... maybe. There is a cow milk cooperative in NYS, perhaps they can help, (but if you milked cows you probably know of them) or the NYS Dairy Goat Assoc can help, or contact Cornell university, they are always a help too. talk with your dept of ag person and find out what you need to do to sell your milk first, then proceed from there. You will probably have to do a lot of talking too. Selling goat milk is different from cow milk in some aspects.

As Vickie also suggested you can pursue organzing a milk cooperative too if there is a situation where you can profit. But the sad state of the matter is that in NYS taxes and big industry farms ran out all the small farmers, hence, another reason we moved. Good Luck!

Bernice


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