Riding herd on goats
Posted by Unknown in Cheese, Cheese Making, Dairy, Dairy Products, Goat, Success Stories, USA on Monday, 10 September 2012
Leslie Cooperband, a Boston native who holds a Ph.D. in soil science, had a secret passion.
And it didn't have anything to do with soil.
She wanted to be a cheesemaker.
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| Wes Jarrell pulls down a brance of a maple tree so the goats can get the leaves. |
After Cooperband and her husband, Wes Jarrell, bought a home and farmland in rural Champaign, they said, "Let's do goats," Cooperband recalled.
About a year and a half after deciding to go ahead with the project – buying the goats, modifying a barn according to state regulations, installing a milk parlor and commercial facility for making the cheese and being certified Grade A by the USDA – they are now selling the soft cheese to area restaurants and direct to consumers at Urbana's Market on the Square.
"A lot of people told me I was crazy to do this," said Cooperband on a recent morning while adding sea salt to a batch of fresh cheese.
But she's taken with the goats and they are obviously crazy about her and Jarrell.
After they stepped outside into the yard to say hello to the goats, the does ran over, pushing their heads up for a rub behind the ears or a scratch under their chins. Jarrell and Cooperband were happy to oblige.
"I love goats. They're so friendly," Cooperband said. When Jarrell pulled down a branch from a Norway maple tree, the goats zoomed over to him, standing on their hind legs to get at the leaves.
East Central Illinois – all of Illinois for that matter – is not exactly a hub for dairy goat operations, let alone cheesemaking.
Most people in the state who own dairy goats have them for their own use or for shows, said Saybrook resident Richard Hudson, secretary and treasurer of the Illinois Dairy Goat Association.
The larger commercial operations tend to be in dairy states like Wisconsin and California.
But there are a growing number of goats around.
According to the most recent Census of Agriculture in 2002, Illinois had 425 farms with dairy goats for a total of 5,685 goats in the state. That's up from 369 farms and 3,728 dairy goats in 1997.
And Illinois is not the only state where the goat population seems to be increasing. From 1997 to 2002, the inventory of dairy goats in the entire U.S. increased from 190,000 to 290,000, also according to the Census of Agriculture.
That increase may be due to rising demand for goat's milk and cheese and the growing movement to buy locally produced food.
Or it may also be because the government is now able to find the farms with goats and the records are more accurate, said Penny Gioja, who raises dairy goats with her family near Bondville.
The Giojas have been raising goats for 10 years and got into the whole thing because they wanted a fresh supply of milk for their family to drink, Gioja said. They have about 10 goats in the winter and 30 in the spring. When the Giojas sell their milk, it is directly off the farm to customers, rather than at farmers' markets or elsewhere.
Goat's milk is white and high in butter fat, plus it contains vitamin B-6, A, potassium, niacin and other minerals. Many people who are allergic to cow's milk can drink goat's milk, Cooperband said.
"It's much easier to digest and if you properly cool and preserve goat's milk, it's delicious," Hudson said.
Goat's milk is naturally homogenized so you can't make butter and cream as easily as from cow's milk, Gioja said.
But you can, and the Giojas have, made soft and hard cheese, yogurt, ice cream and kefir (a creamy drink) out of it.
"There are a lot of uses for the milk," Gioja said.
Cooperband and Jarrell have 22 dairy goats, including one male, a buck. Eventually they would like to add more goats.
A goat's lactation cycle is between 275 and 300 days, from around March to late November or early December.
During those months, Cooperband and Jarrell begin each day by milking the goats at 6:30 a.m. They milk six at a time and the whole process takes an hour.
"They're usually waiting and while you're with the first batch, the next batch is poking their heads around the corner waiting for their turn," Cooperband said.
The next milking is at 6 p.m.
"I like the routine of milking. It's a time when you see how they're doing. I like it more than I thought I would," Cooperband said.
After they milk the goats, the milk is transferred to a holding tank, where it is chilled and stored for three to five days. The milk is then pumped via pipeline to another room where it is sent to a tank and pasteurized.
"The system was set up so there's no exposure to air and potential for contamination," Jarrell said.
About 21 to 22 gallons of milk will make 40 pounds of cheese.
After pasteurization, they will scoop out the cheese, measure the acidity and place the cheese into muslin cheese cloths. Then they put the cheese in plastic shopping carts where they drain up to 12 hours.
Afterward, they take out the cheese and add sea salt. After the salt is mixed in, Cooperband tastes the cheese.
"That's where the art comes in," Jarrell said.
Some of the cheese is mixed with herbs de Provence (thyme, rosemary and other herbs). Other cheese is placed into French molds and covered with parchment.
In between raising the goats and making cheese, Jarrell and Cooperband also have planted about 350 fruit trees and 800 berry bushes. They plan to transition the land to organic.
And in between those activities, both work at the University of Illinois. Jarrell, also a soil scientist, is head of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. Cooperband is a UI Extension specialist in sustainable agriculture.
Christine Des Garennes
