Local market too tough to support Palmer cheesemaker

July 1, 2007

By Will Elliott / Frontiersman

PALMER - It took Windsong Farms five years to turn a profit. That's three years better than Internet retailer Amazon.com, whose rise to fame during the dot-com revolution earned its founder millions and the honor of Time Magazine's &#8220Person of the Year.”

But Windsong's success wasn't fast enough for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

This spring the USDA foreclosed on Windsong despite turning its first profit and the personal intervention of Sen. Ted Stevens, Windsong owner Gary Beu said. The farm had been delinquent on its loans.

The pasture Beu cleared on Palmer Fishhook Road has gone to seed and instead of cattle, a few horses grazed there this week. They belong to the land's new owner, a doctor, Beu said. The majority of Beu's cows were slaughtered.

For its time, Windsong was a prominent face of local agriculture, selling its gourmet cheese curds in stores, at farmers markets, in fine restaurants and over the Internet. What people may not realizeis how much work it took to get there and how tenuously the farm was hanging on even in its first profitable year, Beu said.

&#8220In three months we would have been making monthly payments,” he said. &#8220But it took five years of working ourselves to death.”

Amid Matanuska Maid dairy troubles and Gov. Sarah Palin's pledge to try to do something about Alaska dairy farmers' imperiled future, Beu said Windsong's fate is a good indicator of what will likely happen to the rest of the Valley's dairy farms.

The reasons for Windsong's fall are simple, Beu said.

&#8220It's cheaper to produce milk Outside and ship it up here than it is to buy it here,” he said. Without enough people in the state wealthy or willing enough to buy local products at premium prices, Beu has little hope for the Valley's remaining farms. Store brand cheese sells for about $3.50 a pound at Carrs. Beu had to charge $7 a pound just to break even.

&#8220Restaurants would tell me, ‘your cheese is at least three times better than anything we can ship up here, but we just can't afford it,'” he said.

The pricing of chain grocers also make survival of independent producers difficult, Beu said. Grocers often sell milk at a loss to attract customers into the store. Once there, patrons purchase other items. When that milk reaches its sell-by date, retailers offer deeper discounts. When Beu's cheese reached the sell-by date, Beu had to come to the store and pick up the aging cheese, then credit the store for more.

&#8220People think, ‘maybe [we'll buy local cheese] next month, [because] the Lucerne's on sale now,'” Beu said.

Against the reality of consumer choice, Beu is skeptical the state can do much more than postpone Mat Maid's fate.

&#8220Right now everybody wants to save the farmers, but that will fade too,” Beu said. &#8220People will run out and do their duty and then it will be back to business as usual.”

Last winter, the Frontiersman mentioned Windsong cheese and the farm's financial troubles. Sales doubled for two weeks then fell back to normal, Beu said. &#8220Talk is real cheap.”

Palmer dairy farmer Bob Havemeister suggests Mat Maid should scale back operations to only process local milk. Beu says that won't help cut costs.

&#8220With four hours a week you could bottle all the local milk, but you'd have to spread that over a week,” Beu said. &#8220You'd spend more time cleaning the equipment.”

Mat Maid declined to comment on the issue.

In a few more decades it's possible the state will have grown enough to offer a viable market for local farmers' costly products, Beu said, adding he isn't sure farms will last that long. At the industry's inception in Alaska, transportation out of state was slow and expensive, and Outside farmers had little technological advantage over Alaskan dairymen. Now container ships feed Alaska and vast factory farms in warmer states overwhelm small producers with their volume and efficiency.

&#8220It's a real sad situation,” he said. &#8220I know how I felt when I had to get rid of my cows. Dairy farming's in your blood. It isn't just job. I know it's going to tear his heart out if Bob [Havemeister] has to take his cows to the slaughterhouse. But when you get down to it, you just have to say, ‘Sorry.'”

Beu and his wife are moving on to grow organic vegetables on a small farm in Kentucky. The Beus lost their home along with Windsong Farm. A Valley resident whose family owned the Kentucky farm heard their story and invited the Beus to take it over.

&#8220She said, ‘If you ever get rich, you can help me pay the taxes,'” Beu said. &#8220There's deer on the farm, wild turkeys. It's pretty neat.”

People still call asking to buy Windsong cheese, Beu said. But he doesn't plan to start another cheese-making operation in Kentucky.

&#8220I promised my wife there wouldn't be a single dairy cow on the property,” he said.

Contact Will Elliott at 352-2252 or will.elliott@frontiersman.com.