Galeton goat dairy attempts to convert customers

GALETON – The experiment worked.
In July 2003, Jennifer Zindel and Scott Miller began bottling fresh goat’s milk in their desire to bring the commodity to the area and for a simpler life. At that time the pair was milking 44 of their 150 goats and bottling fresh milk up to three times a week.
They were selling milk strictly at farmers’ markets and dreaming of making it “big” with their product.
They are almost there.
The couple now has about 300 goats; during the peak season it was producing 900 gallons of milk a week.
Fresh goat’s milk is considered a pie-in-the-sky idea because goats are seasonal breeders and therefore seasonal milkers. Goats give birth from January to June and will produce milk for approximately 300 days. To help ensure they have milk year-round, they have coerced some of their younger females to breed later in the year.
Zindel, a small-ruminant veterinarian, used a light-cycle method to encourage off-season ovulation in 100 of the farm’s 300 girls.
They placed the females under a set of lights for eight weeks, then took them out of the light for six weeks before placing them outside like normal.
Again the experiment worked and the proof can be found in their kitchen, which is now acting as a hospital nursery. The kitchen is filled with tubs containing “newbies” – babies under 24-hours old. They are kept inside to closely monitor their individual growth and to ensure they receive the proper amount and type of colostrum.
At last check, there were 55 babies running around Destiny Dairy with more on the way.
“It’s hard to break into the market, especially with a product that people don’t necessarily know that much about,” Zindel said. “We go to the market and we laugh because we talk to people at the market and it’s not about selling milk, it’s about converting souls.”
Saturated fats and cholesterol in goat milk are lower than in cow’s milk. The proteins in goat’s milk are smaller, allowing them to be more easily digested. Studies have shown that children with hypersensitivity to cow’s milk can drink goat milk because it contains a lower level of lactose-based sugars.
Destiny Dairy goat milk is available at Vitamin Cottage, Wild Oats Natural Marketplace and Sunflower Markets for $2.79 a quart. The pair strategically priced the milk lower than Meyenberg Milk, which is the most common fresh goat’s milk found in grocery stores.
Zindel estimates they provide Vitamin Cottage with up to 400 quarts per week of milk while the product is still finding a market with Sunflower and Wild Oats shoppers.
Miller, a culinary chef, is also working on providing fudge for customers. The response at farmers’ markets this year was positive, so the pair hopes expanding the product will increase their visibility among consumers.
“People need to taste (the milk) to see that it is not their pre-conceived notion of what goat’s milk is,” Zindel said. “It actually can taste just like their regular cow’s milk, only it has to be respected and it has to be treated properly. When you burn it or when you hold it and it gets stale it does spoil. It has that protein capability … so you really have to work hard to make it taste the way ours tastes.”

Kim Lock is the agriculture reporter for The Northern Colorado Business Report. To suggest column ideas contact her at (970) 221-5400 ext. 222 or at klock@ncbr.com

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