2002 Annual Report for LNE00-140
Microdairy: Creating a Profitable Five-Cow Dairy
Summary
The development of the MicroDairy has involved many challenges and adjustments but in 2002 we finally made some real progress in preparing the MicroDairy trailer for production. The MicroDairy trailer has been built, delivered to its future home on Old Springhouse Farm, small scale processing equipment has been purchased, or if not available commercially, has been designed and fabricated. A very small scale pasteurizer/cheese vat with some innovative temperature monitoring systems shows real promise. Major regulatory hurdles have been recently cleared with the 5-0 unanimous approval of a zoning exception. We expect all the required permits to be released shortly and then final electrical and plumbing systems can be completed. Initial dairy production will begin immediately. The project coordinator has resigned from his employer to focus his full attention on bringing this project to a successful completion.
Objectives/Performance Targets
To build a complete MicroDairy, including required equipment, that meets regulations. This eliminates a major obstacle to farmers beginning small-scale, on-farm processing.
To make the MircroDairy affordable, with a target cost from $40,000 to $75,000. Because it is a transportable system it could be leased(like a tractor) without a down payment.
To make the Micro Dairy economically viable. The project will demonstrate that a farm can be profitable with as few as five cows, and can reach median US farm income with ten cows or less.
By the end of the third year, 300 farmers and extension personnel and 15 regulatory personnel will have toured the demonstration farm, and five
MircoDairies will have been built based on plans developed by this project.
Accomplishments/Milestones
The MicroDairy has been designed and built with the guidance, assistance and many helpful suggestions of numerous regulatory and educational team members. It appears that the cost to build future MicroDairies will be close to our performance targets. Some other ancillary features such as water supply, site planning to meet zoning codes etc. have been considerably higher than anticipated. The key performance targets focus on commercial viability of small scale production, processing and marketing. We should have significant information to report in this area in our next report. Although we have not attempted to promote the MicroDairy concept until it has been thoroughly tested, we already have a lengthy mailing list of interested parties, including an individual interested in applying some of the design concepts to build a small scale USDA-approvable poultry processing facility.
We are far behind our initial schedule on this project due to a number of circumstances including a fire at the company that was building the trailer for us, the eventual sale of that business and several other factors. It is our intent, however to compress the final two years of the planned project into the next 12 months. We now have the resources dedicated to the project that will allow us to accomplish this.
Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes
The MicroDairy has been built, but that is probably the easy part. We now embark on the proof of the concept.