Cheese, please

Frontiersman

PALMER — Matanuska Creamery, operating from a former grocery store on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway, is accepting milk and turning it into cheese, which comes as a relief for beleaguered local dairy farmers.

The dairy, formerly called Southcentral Dairy Venture, has been in the works for months and has been touted as the possible savior for four local dairy farmers. Since the Matanuska Maid dairy stopped accepting milk in mid-December, the farmers have had to dump thousands of gallons of their milk onto their fields instead of selling it for production.

State-run Matanuska Maid has been shut down and the state Creamery Board is selling off its assets.

Kyle Beus, manager for Matanuska Creamery, said that so far the company has been turning locally produced milk into cheese to fill pre-orders paid for under the cheese futures program of Alaska Farmers and Stockgrowers Inc.

As of Monday afternoon, Beus said the dairy has been taking in milk and making cheese for about a week and is about a third of the way through those orders. The cheese will have to age 60 days before it can be sent out.

Karen Olson, the organization’s secretary/treasurer, said people can still call 746-2223 to buy cheddar through the creamery’s cheese futures program.

For the futures, Beus said he’s basically making the cheese at cost, with the rest of the money going to farmers.

“We’re trying to make up for all the milk they’ve dumped,” Olson said.

Wayne Brost, a 12-year Point MacKenzie dairy farmer, said this past winter has been tough. Between December and now, Brost estimates that even with Northern Lights Dairy in Delta Junction taking milk periodically, he has had to dump about $20,000 worth of milk.

Add in feed costs and other payments to keep his herd alive and, “It’s been a significant loss, but I’m just crossing my fingers and maybe my toes that this thing works,” he said about Matanuska Creamery.

Since the new dairy has been up and running, Brost said he hasn’t had to dump any milk. So far, he’s optimistic but cautious, and isn’t making any bold moves. If the dairy is able to process and sell liquid milk, that will likely be the first sign that he can breathe easily, Brost said.

Beus said the creamery is planning to get its liquid milk facility up and running in a couple of weeks and has vendors — national chains and local stores — lined up ready to sell the local milk once it’s available.

“We’re going to go from no fluid milk to a lot of fluid milk overnight,” he said.

Brost isn’t sure how much milk the local dairy will need. His hope is that between planned lines of cheese, milk and ice cream, Matanuska Creamery can handle all the milk he can give and more.

That assumes the dairy can find a market for its all-local products, he said. On that front, “I’ve heard a lot of positive input.”

Beus said he has as well. There’s a movement nationally of folks wanting to know where their food comes from.

Local dairy products can tap into that trend. Farmers have also agreed not to use any hormones in their cows, something health-conscious consumers will notice.

Olson said that shipping milk from Seattle takes about five days. Matanuska Creamery milk will be fresher than any the competition can provide, she said.

Matanuska Creamery will sell its milk at a premium, Beus said, but not too steep a premium. He figures it will be somewhere in the price range of regular, store-brand milk and premium, organic milk.

If demand is healthy and the dairy can handle growth, Brost said he’d even consider expanding his herd. That is something he had been doing prior to the Matanuska Maid shutdown.

“I was building my numbers slowly … up until last spring, when I could see some rough water ahead on this Mat Maid thing and they started telling us the wheels were coming off the bus,” Brost said.

With trouble on the horizon he was able to trim back his herd. Now Brost has a herd of about 200 head of cattle. Fifty of those are in his milking program at any given time. Brost would like to build to where he’s milking 100 to 120 cows, which would be a larger operation than he’s ever run and require doubling his herd, something about which he doesn’t want to be too hasty.

“We’re just going to wait and see what happens with this new processing facility,” Brost said.

Expansion like the type Brost considers isn’t out of the question, Beus said, noting that local farmers were only supplying 15 percent of Matanuska Maid’s milk.

“I think there’s certainly room to grow,” he said. “First thing is just to bring stability back to the marketplace for these guys. I think they deserve big kudos for weathering the storm.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.