2002 Mills Farm Life Article

The following article appeared in the Fall 2002 MILLS FARM LIFE specialty magazine. This article was written by Doug Peerbolt, publisher of the magazine.

WOW! A FAMILY FARM WITH 266 KIDS!! WISCONSIN MILKING GOATS

When you walk into the barm on the LaClare Farm your’re greeted by a chorus of friendly, inquisitive bleating from hundreds of goats of all kinds, shapes, sizes, colors and ages. For someone who hasn’t been around goats, they’re fascinating animals that immediately raise a long list of questions. So we asked them…

About 25 years ago, Larry and Clara Hedrich had a dream. Even before they were married in 1978 they had the seed of an idea about owning a farm and a herd of milking goats.

Their research into the idea started early. “We actually went touring on dairy goat farms on our honeymoon,” explained Larry with a bearded smile. “We’re kind of … not normal people. Even when we take a vacation, like this summer, when we go to Mesa, Colorado, we’ll look in the American Dairy Goat Association directory to see who the goat owners are in the area. Then we email them ahead of time to see when we could meet with them to see what’s done with goats in their neck of the woods. It’s been real interesting and has given us a lot of contracts.”

Granted, raising and milking goats is an unusual way to make a living, but to this couple and their five children, it’s a dream that has come true. After many years of planning and hard work they’ve turned the LaClare Farm into a successful venture and a satisfying way of life.

The Hedrich family, Larry, Clara and three of their five children, live and work on a 22 acre farm in Chilton, Wisconsin. The two older children help on some weekends and during the summer when they are home from college. Their side business of milking dairy goats has recently turned full time, and it keeps them hopping.

THE LACLARE GOAT HERD

Of the 266 or so goats currently on the farm (plus or minus a few), about 150 are milkers. The herd includes examples of all of the major breeds of milking goats. Each breed has different characteristics that make them suitable for different needs. Larry defined them for us.

“The Saanens we kind of relate to the Holstein cow. They’re a heavy producer but a little lower on test for butter fat and protein. The Nubian is a little lower in volume but higher on test like the Guernsey cow. We are paid on component pricing just like with cows – on how much butter fat and protein that they generate. Then we’ve got Toggenburgs and Alpines. The Alpines are the animal that a lot of the dairies have gone with. They seem to be a good, all around animal. So are the Toggenburgs. The LaManchas are the earless ones. We get the most questions on them at fairs. People ask, Why do we crop the ears? But it’s a natural hereditary trait, a characteristic of that breed. The Oberhasli has rather unique coloring but they are a meeker animal and don’t do as well in a large herd. We’ve got seven people in the family and we can’t ever agree on which breed is the best so we’ve got all the breeds.”

HERD MANAGEMENT

At the time of our visit, breeding season was in full swing and the major kidding season was about to start.

“The herd changes constantly,” said Larry. “We’ll have young ones born or we’ll sell some breeding stock or we’ll have culls that we sell. There is a constant turnover. We figure we’re typically going to be between 225 and 275 animals. Our goal is to milk 150 goats year round with an eight pound herd average.”

“It’s just like with cows. One year they just don’t produce what you thought their genetics would, and they’re gone. But I’ve got one out there that is 11 years old. They run the spectrum. Most of them are good for two, three or four years, then we have others that last much longer.”

THE BREEDING PROGRAM

“Bucks are penned separately from the milking herd because we do individualized matings,” said Larry. “The does are evaluated and a buck is selected to improve the does’ traits. Clara does a lot of the record keeping so we have accurate information to base our selections on.”

“We keep a buck near the does in the barn because when the does are in heat they’ll hang around that pen. It just makes the heat detection a lot easier. They come in heat every 21 days and they’ll remain in heat from 12 hours to two days. Heat detection is a must. Right now the majority of the breedings are natural. A goal of ours is to do more artificial insemination breedings which will give us more opportunities to improve our genetics. There are no A.I. technicians to call as in the cow industry, you must do all A.I. work yourself. We are perfecting our A.I. skills.”

“Goats are seasonal breeders, just like deer. As the days get shorter and the nights longer, they will come into heat. Their gestation is five months with most of their young born in the spring,” said Larry. “In order to pay our bills year around we have to kind of work with the breeding cycle. We’ll start breeding as early as we can get them coming into heat. We use artificial day light to trick them into thinking that it’s summer. In January we’ll turn the lights on for about 20 hours a day, then shut them off about eight weeks later. They’ll start coming into heat four to six weeks after that around March. That’s where we’ll get our fall fresheners. We like to balance it out so we don’t have a real large number of goats kidding in any certain month.”

“We try to time the birth of new kids so that they’re done before July when the weather turns hot and puts more stress on them. Also, the family is busy traveling to dairy goat shows throughout June, July and August.”

THE FEEDING PROGRAM

Some crops are grown for feed on their own 22 acres but most of the alfalfa, hay, corn and oats are bought from outside sources.

“I run a pelleted ration for the dairy herd formulated with our local feed supplier and manufactured in Little Chute,” said Larry. “I pay a small premium to get it made into a pelleted form, because goats like to sort out and eat the coarse stuff like the corn and oats and they’ll leave all the vitamins and minerals laying in the bottom of the feed dish. I got tired of throwing away the product that they didn’t like. I even tried putting molasses on their feed to get them to eat it all but that didn’t work either so I went to pelleted feed. A specially formulated, non-pelleted feed is fed to the drys, yearlings, kids and bucks. Minerals, salt and sodium bicarbonate are fed free-choice.”

THE HEALTH CARE PROGRAM

For safety reasons, the goat’s horns are removed at a couple days of age and cauterized.

“It doesn’t seem to bother them when they’re young,” said Larry. “If you wait too long it has to be done by the vet and it is a pretty radical surgery. I disbud them because I have children and it’s just a matter of safety. If you fend over and they ram you in the head, their head will be much harder than yours, It also prevents them from injuring other goats and from getting their heads caught in feeders.”

“We routinely vaccinate for enterotoxemia and tetanus with CD-T. BOSE and vitamin A and E shots are given. All goats are wormed on a routine schedule. Most of our stuff we get through the local vet. We also us “Today and Tomorrow” which I get from Mills Fleet Farm. Upon drying off an animal all does are dry treated with Tomorrow. All colostrum and milk fed to kids is pasteurized to prevent diseases such as CAE. After two weeks of age “Lamb Milk Replacer” Advance from Mills Fleet Farm is combined with whole milk and fed to kids until they are eight to 10 weeks of age. Clara is in charge of the veterinarian’s services and the animal health.

SECURITY AND THE GUARD LLAMA

While looking over the herd in the LaClare barn I spotted an unusually tall figure that stood out among the rest. It was a large llama.

“He’s out there as a guard llama,” explained Larry. “We had a coyote out here one night. I heard it barking and found all the goats jammed up against the wall. The llama was standing cross-ways in the door. Nothing was getting in. The next morning we saw a coyote in front of the barn. Some people also use miniature donkeys like we have out front. We've sold them as guard animals for goats to people we know in California and Ohio. Llamas and donkeys are much more aggressive than goats. The challenge with miniature donkeys is that they might injure a newborn kid until they realize that it belongs in the herd. To solve this problem the doe and kid are penned on the other side for the fence until they are acquainted.”

THE MILKING OPERATION

Goats are milked twice a day with the help of the three younger sisters, Katie, Heather and Jessica Hedrich, once in the morning, then again between five and six o’clock at night. Inside the barn, a milking platform holds 20 goats. Five can be milked at once. A pipeline system is used to transfer the milk to a bulk tank. Equipment on a diary goat farm is similar to “cow equipment” other than the claws on the machines. Everything is automated, as with most cow set ups. Unlike cows, goats have only two teats, but like cows, goats are milked for 305 days after they kid, then are dry for two months. Goats yield an average of one half to one gallon of milk per day. All milking goats are on DHI test. Information gained form this program is used for breeding and culling purposes.

MILKING CAPACITY, IDENTIFICATION AND TRACKING

Each goat wears a numbered collar for identification and they are also tattooed and registered with the American Dairy Goat Association. If you want to export, many buyers will look for registered animals with milk records.

“We have some bloodlines which are excellent milkers, that are milking over 3,000 pounds, “Larry explained. “An average goat will produce around 1800 to 2400 pounds of milk a year. We had one that did over 4,000 pounds and placed in the Top 10 in the United States that year for her breed.”

THE SEASON, THE MARKET AND PROFITABILITY

The market for goat meat is cyclical with prices being higher around the Christmas and Easter holiday seasons and around ethnic holidays. Around Christmas there aren’t a lot of meat goats available. For the ethnic market, centered around the Mediterranean, goat meat is their primary meat. The price at that time goes up substantially for choice kids. In Wisconsin they bring up to $1.30 a pound, live weight, whereas in summer they might go down to $.40.

Prices are lower in the summer months because goats are seasonal breeders and there is a greater supply of animals from spring kidding. Depending on what market is being served, the prime weight for meat goats is anywhere from 40 to 80 pounds.

“So if you have most of them kidding in March or April,” explained Larry, “you ‘re going to have a glut of young kids that are big enough for the meat market in late summer.

“I’ve concentrated on the dairy aspect of it but you always have cull animals. If I have to kid out 150 animals a year I’m dealing with 300 kids. I probably need, at most, 50 of them, that I can use for the dairy operation.

“The market for goat milk continues to increase. The demand for goat cheese increases about 10 percent annually. The price we receive for our milk is set every fall for the next year. From October through March we are building our base. The total pounds of milk produced in those six months is divided by six. This gives us the number of pounds of milk per month for the months of April through September. Premium price is paid for this milk – anything produced over this base is considered a surplus and it receives a lower price,” explained Clara. “Right now we’re breaking even mainly because we are reinvesting our profit back into animals and buildings. On paper it says that everything is going to be good.

“Basically, we figure it’s a three year set-up from when we got going in June. So far, everything is following the plan that we’d anticipated.”

THE BUSINESS OF SELLING GOAT MILK

The Hedrich family dairy goat business has been following a long term plan. But starting and running a goat milking business is different than starting a typical dairy operation.

“First you get the processing plant to accept you,” explained Larry, “then you invest your money in an operation. It’s not like with cows, where you can call any one of four trucks that are going past you and they’ll stop and get your milk. The truck that comes here is from the Edelweiss cheese plant in Marshfield. To ensure that we are producing a quality product the driver records the bulk tank temperature and takes a milk sample. The somatic cell and bacterial count tests are run from this sample. The driver has four different routes that he runs, picking up throughout the state and this area is growing. There is no one else that picks milk up in northeast Wisconsin.”

“IF you want to get into the business, the processor will first come out and interview you to wee what your intent is. The cheese plant can’t afford to run a truck route and pick up milk part of the year so they’re looking for people that want to be a full time operation and milk year round.”

THE PRODUCT – GOAT CHEESE

Why do some people like goat cheese more than regular cheese? It has a different flavor and in some cases, it’s healthier.

There is even a World Championship Cheese Contest every year, a Wisconsin tradition since 1957. This March in Madison, Wisconsin they had a record 1,132 entries from 19 nations.

Sponsored by the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association, the event began as a cheddar contest, but it’s now grown to 28 classes of sheep and goat cheese and three butter classes. There’s also a retail packaging category.

Our research shows that goat milk is being made into feta, brie, camembert, chabis, cheddar,, country jack, monterey jack, gouda and chevre cheeses, just to name a few.

“Well, “ explained Larry, “goat cheese has a different taste. I think people are getting to the point where they’re looking for these niche type of products with more of a full flavor. The health food market is also a real stable market for our milk and cheese. That’s kind of the market we’re serving. The niche market of goat cheese products has been increasing quite a bit. Our plant tells us they have experienced five to ten percent growth per year for the past 10 years.”

“We’ve participated in a taste testing booth at the Wisconsin State Fair for many years with the Wisconsin Dairy Goat Products Association. Members of the Wisconsin Dairy Goat Products Association help to man the booth and we’ve seen a lot of change. People used to send their children up to the booth to try it then watch their reaction. Now they come up and ask, “What do you have new this year.” People want to know what stores carry goat products. There has been a phenomenal change in attitude.”

THE GOAT MEAT MARKET

“I would relate the flavor of goat meat somewhat to venison but you don’t have any of the wild taste. According to tests goat meat is actually better in certain qualities than chicken, pork or beef. We’re marketing it as a lean meat, trying to tap into that market area, the weight conscious crowd.

“We’re a member of the Northwoods Marketing Coop which is based in Crivitz, Wisconsin, “ Added Larry. “It’s a newly formed co-op where we have goat meat in all the Woodman’s grocery stores.”

According to information published by Northwoods, goat meat is 50 to 65 percent lower in fat than similarly prepared beef, but has a similar protein content. A USDA handbook has reported that saturated fat in cooked goat meat is 40 percent less than that of chicken, even with the skin removed.

THE EXPORT MARKET

One thing that has been a growing market recently is the exporting of animals to other countries. Mexico is buying some dairy breeds from the U.S. Larry and Clara have also been working with an exporter on a sale to Vietnam. Exported animals sometimes requires DHIA Dairy Herd Improvement Association records. To establish those records the supplier needs to use in-line meters to measure how much milk is produced by each animal. Those records can then be used to predict how much milk could conceivably be produced by the animal.

IT’S A FAMILY OPERATION AND A BUSY LIFE

Along with Larry and Clara, all five of their children have been, or are involved in the business in some way. Between the three children that are still home they each have to help milk six times each week. It works out will with the busy schedules of both parents and children.

Larry is President of the Chilton Public School Board as well as President of the Wisconsin Dairy Goat Association and is on the American Dairy Goat Association (ADGA) national committee for the annual ADGA Convention, Chairman of the Calumet County Market Animal Sale, and is a member of the Calumet County Fairboard and Chilton FFA Alumni.

In addition to being the longest tenured female ag teacher in the state and currently teaching at West De Pere High School, Clara is also president of the Chilton Catholic School Board, newsletter editor for WDGA and is on the ADGA National Youth Committee, a member of the Calumet County fariboard and Chilton FFA Alumni.

All the Hedrich children have been involved in 4-H and FFA right along.

This past year Anna, the oldest child, got an FFA scholarship through the American Dairy Goat Association. She’s graduated from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls with a Bachelor of Science degree in Dairy Science with a Farm Management emphasis and has always had a goat to farm. She'’ worked for several dairy farms from a 60 cow stanchion barn to a 3000 cow mega-farm. She’s contemplating a future partnership with mom and did in the family business.

Two years ago, 20 year old Greg also won an FFA scholarship through the American Dairy Goat Association. Today he is a sophomore at UW-Stout majoring in Tech-Ed and will be teaching high school shop and vocational classes upon graduation.

Katie will be a senior in high school this fall and at 17 already has her whole life planned. After she graduates from college she’s going to raise goats in Arizona with a friend and run a soap making operation. In addition to milking every weekday morning and one night a week on the family farm, she milks cows for someone else to earn extra cash. Larry claims that Katie already has future plans to drop off her children at mom and dad’s goat farm so they can train them.

Thirteen year old Jessica helps with the milking every weekend and wants to study cosmetology when she graduates.

Twelve year old Heather helps her parents with outside chores, feeding and watering the animals. And in the evening helps her parents milk.

GOAT SHOWS

While other families go camping for the weekend, the Hedrich family puts the pickup camper in the back of the truck and loads up a trailer full of goats, and away they go to goat shows all over the state.

At the Wisconsin State Fair last year Greg was a senior showman and took second Place. Katie, as a sophomore, was an intermediate showman and took a First Place. It was Jessica’s first year and she took Third Place in her class. All of them came home with ribbons from the premier competition in the state.

“That’s one of the fun things about having a lot of children,” said Larry, “watching them learn. And we have a lot of friends throughout the state that we only see at goat shows. Most of the shows are Saturday and Sunday, so we’d do our Friday night milking then leave and travel at night when it’s cooler for the goats. It’s our family thing. Then we head home on Sunday evening. We have been able to hire some neighbor kids for milking an chores when we go.”

FUTURE PLANS

“I see this industry continuing to grow,” said Larry, “although I don’t see it growing exponentially because if you grow faster than the market can absorb the product, we’re all going to be in trouble. Therefore, I like to see a slow steady growth. One thing we have with our cheese factory is that they’ve always said they’ll take as much milk as we can supply. I’m hoping that the price we receive can continue to go up, since our costs always go up, and increase the price for our milk.”

“We’re looking at the feasibility of having an ‘On the Farm Store’ and creating an educational center here. There are so many people that have no ties back to the farm anymore that when you bring them out they don’t understand what to me is basic. They can’t relate to it. They don’t know anything about it. Education has been Clara’s life work and I’ve been on school boards and involved with schools for a long time, so it would be nice if we could educate the public and also make a living for our family.

GROWING, BUILDING AND EXPANDING

“I worked construction up until June of this year,” said Larry, “in addition to running the farm. And then it got to a point where (he touches his hair), this is getting thin. I wonder why. So I made the choice to go full time into this.

“We’ve had goats since we moved out here in 1978 and we started milking on a commercial basis in 1996. We’ve been building it up steadily since then and we’ve gotten to a point now where there’s enough work there to definitely be full time.

“We’re building a new 40 foot by 70 foot shed for housing young stock, and we’re doing that ourselves. We try to do the majority of everything here on our own. Like with the shed I had a cousin help me one day and couple of neighbor kids helped another day, but the majority is done with myself, and the kids and my wife. That makes it fun too.

“As my daughter Katie commented as we’re putting the siding on the building, ‘You know it’s kind of neat. I know how to cook, and I know how to clean, and now I can build a building too.’

“We’re giving the kids that kind of background. We made a choice when we first bought the place, when we got married and were intending to have children, to raise them on a farm and proceed from there. The goat business has been good to us a s a family. I think when you’ve got a sixth grader that can come in and essentially, efficiently take care of the feeding, the milking and everything else you know that (these goats are good) animals to work with as a family. When you talk about a family farm, this is what it is. I t seems like its’s working.”

A side note to the Article:

A side note to the Article: How do you make soap out of goat’s milk?

Young entrepreneurs Abbey Zinkle, on the left, and Katie Hedrich, on the right, display some samples of Goat Milk Soap and some of the tools and ingredients used in the manufacturing process.

“We use olive oil, canola oil, sunflower or safflower oil, some shortening and six cups of goat milk,” explained Katie, “and add sodium hydroxide to make it firm. You first mix the oils together and heat them but they have to stay under 125 degrees. Then we mix the milk with sodium hydroxide and that has to kept under 85 degrees. Then we mix the two batches of ingredients for 15 minutes. We pour it into molds and let it sit for six weeks. Afterwards, it’s grated down, placed in a kettle with a little wate to remelt it. When it is remelted we add fragrances. It is then put into molds. When it has hardened it is packaged and ready for sale.”