ND Department of Agriculture Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MAY 29, 2008

DAIRY FARM NOW PROCESSING OWN MILK

STERLING – North Dakota’s newest dairy processing facility isn’t a big corporation or cooperative: it’s a 350-acre family farm.

Blaine and Kathy Goetz of rural Sterling have been pasteurizing, homogenizing and bottling the milk from their 120 Holstein cows for about six weeks. The milk is sold at Dan’s Supermarkets in Bismarck and Mandan under the Bessie’s Best label.

“This is a great example of value-added agriculture,” says Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson. “Blaine and Kathy have taken a high quality product – the milk from their farm – and are bringing it directly to the consumer.”

The Goetz’s have been operating the farm, started by Blaine’s father, for more than 30 years. Helping out are their son and daughter-in-law, Travis and Lisa.

“We really started thinking about processing our milk a couple of years ago,” Kathy says. “The fact is, though, that Blaine has always wanted to do this, just to see what could be done and how far we could take it.”

Kathy credits the North Dakota Department of Agriculture dairy inspection staff with providing them with the expertise and advice for getting started.

“We are so lucky to have two very good inspectors,” she says. “Orville Payne and John Ringsrud were out here or on the phone with us anytime we had a question.

Between the two of them, they were with us for the whole process from the ground up, even when it was just some drawings on a piece of paper.”

Ringsrud says the experience has also been a new one for Payne and himself.

“We had a couple of on-farm dairy plants when I started with the department years ago,” he says. “This has got to be the first new one in 15 years, and it’s the only one in the state.”

Blaine and Kathy now produce up to three 300-gallon batches of whole milk every week, depending on demand. The milk is sold in one-gallon, plastic jugs.

“We’re working on a chocolate milk,” says Kathy. “In fact, we’re testing out different chocolates right now, and some of them are really good.”

The Goetzs say they are hearing a demand for two-percent milk, and that they are also looking into half-gallon containers.

“We’ve really had a good response to our milk,” says Kathy. “People have told us they really like it, and like the fact it’s straight from the farm.”

“They’re getting a good start,” says Dallas Schneider, department specialist for Dan’s Supermarkets. “They’ve got a good product, and they’re doing a lot of in-store promotion. They’re a really nice family to work with.”

Commissioner Johnson says he hopes the Goetz Dairy will inspire other producers to look into value-added enterprises.

“There are lots of opportunities for food processing and other on-farm businesses and industries,” Johnson said. “There are also a number of state and federal programs to help producers move into value-added enterprises.”

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MEDIA: For more information, please call Ted Quanrud at (701) 328-2233 or tquanrud@nd.gov or Patrice Lahlum at (701) 239-7210 or plahlum@nd.gov.

Blaine and Kathy Goetz can be reached at (701) 387-4574.