On-farm yogurt business testimony to planning, persistence

By Frances Anderson, Ontario Farmer staff, July 4, 2006

Deep in the green hills of Grey County, not far from the Saugeen River, there's a modest dairy that makes yogurt that's delivered to half the country.

And it's managed to maintain its markets from Victoria, British Columbia, to Ottawa, Ontario, even as the competition has grown.

"We started at a good time," says Sabine Huesing, thinking back 20 years ago. "Organic was fairly new and yogurt wasn't well known." In fact, when her partner Ingo, told the first meeting of OntarBio Co-op's organic milk group what they planned to do, the idea of an organic processing farm "was a bit of a joke."

But Ingo and Sabine, and Johannes Schneider were trained in Germany where organic farming and on-farm food processing are much more commonplace. None of the three partners had farm backgrounds, but they were all committed to the ideal of organic farming.

They purchased their 400 acre farm with a tie stall bank barn and a herd of Holstein cattle, and built it up from 32 to 45 milking cows. By 1992 they began weighing the options of doubling the herd or adding value.

Building the processing plant was "a more financially attractive solution," said Johannes, and so he began working through the process.

The partners considered making cheeses, but Johannes explains "to make yogurt is a science, to make cheese, is an art. It takes a lot more skill to make cheese. To hire a skilled cheesemaker for a year to two with low sales volume...this is a tough proposition."

"You also didn't need (plant) supply quota," for yogurt, added Sabine. Dairy Farmers of Ontario supplies milk for yogurt "on demand". So once the partners got their processing plant built and licensed, milk supply for yogurt was not a problem.

The provincial dairy plant inspectors "were very helpful," said Johannes. They were long-time OMAF staff with experience from the time there were many small dairies. They knew the regulations and "were very helpful in telling us what was expected," said Johannes. Since then, the plant has become federally certified by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

It was a lot of work. "From the first thought to the first cup of yogurt would be two years."

"If you are a single farmer, and you want to do this, forget it!" advises Johannes. "It takes too much of your time. We had this situation where I was free when to wanted to be because I knew Ingo was taking good care of the farm."

The business is divided between Long Alley Farm, named for the trees that line the laneway, and Saugeen Country Dairy. The first year, the dairy required just 20 per cent of the milk produced on the farm. Today, they only ship milk off the farm once or twice a month. It's Johannes' job to coordinate the logistics since the DFO will only pick up a full load (two day's worth of milk).

Under Ontario regulations, all the farm milk is sold to DFO and purchased back by the dairy. The bulk tank milk grader samples the milk every other day, before it's pumped from the tank in the milk house, to the tank in the yogurt house. DFO pays the farm for the milk - less the pooled transportation, administration and marketing fees. Then, Sabine, who does the bookkeeping, writes a cheque to DFO for the full processors' price.

Saugeen Country Dairy processes yogurt every morning, six days a week, with Johannes or Sabine, and two staff.

It's a fairly simple recipe: pasteurize the milk, cool it, add the culture, fill the yogurt cups, put them on the rack and incubate for six to seven hours. Cool. Box. Skid and shrink wrap. They ship twice a week to five or six distributors who serve smaller health and grocery stores.

The yogurt has a shelf life of 42 to 45 days, and they use the expiry date as the lot number and they keep two samples from every lot. "Every year you have to make a mock recall," said Johannes, to demonstrate you can trace the product to the retailer.

Saugeen Country yogurt can make the uncommon claim that it comes from the milk of a single dairy herd, managed biodynamically. It's made from whole milk, with only the bacterial culture added so it' four per cent butter fat. Yogurt yield is governed by solids, but Ingo's main selection criteria for breeding cattle is longevity. It comes in one flavour: plain, and is availabe in 500 g cup and 3.5 kg tubs, but most is sold in a one kilogram container.

While the partners are members of OntarBio, and the label says "certified organic" the certification is by the Biodynamic Society of Ontario. This designation reflects a farm management system that encompasses organic principles, but is founded on a philosophy that holds an awareness of cosmic forces as well.

"It's spiritual in as much as you have to have some awareness that there's more than just physical matter," said Ingo.

The farm and yogurt business are right-sized right now, and one can't expand without the other.


OACC gratefully acknowledges Ontario Farmer for permission to post this article on our website.


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Posted December, 2006