Taking care of the kids at Uptown Dairy

Sep 23, 2010

Chris Bliss and D'Arcy Snider and four of their kids at Uptown Dairy in Sydenham

The first ever Open Farms Tour, put on by the National Farmers’ Union, took place on September 19 and the weather could not have been better. It encouraged many visitors to head out to meet local area farmers, find out what they produce and how they do so.

In Sydenham Chris Bliss, who along with her partner D’Arcy Snider owns and operates Uptown Dairy, a goat dairy farm, was in the loafing barn or the “nursery” as she calls it, a small wooden building that houses the most recent additions to the herd. Some of them were born just weeks ago and the visitors, myself included, could not seem to get enough of them.

The couple began production at their farm in January 2009 and a start up loan from the Frontenac Community Futures Development Corporation (FCFDC) the year before helped them along the way. After securing their market by joining the Ontario Dairy Goat Cooperative, and armed with ingenuity, determination and years of experience as cow dairy farmers, the two are now running a very successful and smooth operation.

Their original 80-head herd now consists of 247 Saanen goats, a pure white alpine breed from Switzerland that is well known for its high quality milk. Though the industry says the goats can be bred at one year of age and can start producing milk, Chris and D’Arcy prefer to wait until the goats are 18 months old, since they want them to get “a bit more growth on them.”

Chris mentioned that the current popularity of goat milk and goat milk products is a result of a highly educated public that is well aware of the milk’s many health benefits, and is “a huge plus” for their business.

“The whole healthy eating trend has meshed perfectly with goat farming. There is very little education that needs to happen since now roughly 90% of the public are aware of the overall health benefits of goat milk, namely that it is a more heart healthy milk. A lot of people are trying it who have never tried it before,” explained Chris.

She continued, “It is also in high demand for people of all ages who are lactose intolerant, especially young babies.”

Chris explained that the molecules in goat milk are much smaller than those found in cow’s milk. “They do not glob up and cling - they don’t cause blocked arteries and other related health issues.”

The farm is 240 acres and includes a smaller loafing barn for the youngsters, and a 50’ x 75’ “cover-all” building to which the 8-week-old goats are moved after they have been weaned.

The third barn is the 50’ x 82’ foot main milking barn, which is also air conditioned and is where 120 goats are kept and milked twice daily, at 4:30am and 4:30 pm. They are milked 12 at a time by automated milking machines, which milk all the goats in just an hour and a half. From there the milk is immediately pumped into a sophisticated cooling system that cools it from 100 degrees F to below 40 degrees F in about five minutes. The milk is then pumped directly into a refrigerated 3200 litre storage tank. Once a week it is pumped into a refrigerated truck that takes it to Toronto where it is made into fine gourmet cheeses.

D’Arcy gave me a tour of the top notch milk shed where the storage tank and cooling system are located. He and Chris designed and built the shed, which has passed two inspections so far with a perfect 100% score, making their operation a grade A facility.

Right now the herd is producing up to 10,000 litres a month and D’Arcy is hoping to acquire machinery to allow him to milk an additional 12 goats.

D’Arcy informed me that part of the beauty of goats is that they eat whole grain and do not require processed feed, which is a huge bonus that helps keep the feeding costs down. Their diet consists of hay, wheat, corn and barley, all of which is grown right on the farm.

Compared to cow dairy farming Chris explains that one big difference is dealing with a much larger number of animals. It takes 10 goats to equal the milk production of a single cow and the goat population grows much more quickly than that of cows.

“Keeping up with herd management can be tough”, Chris said. “We look at the goats individually and a lot of the management depends on observation and skills that can’t really be taught. I tend to walk around with a note book and that helps a lot.” That being said Chris admits that goats overall are a user friendly animal, easy to handle and “you don’t have to be a life-long dairy person to do it”

“It was tough to get used to them but once we did and learned how they functioned and trained them, we’ve managed to get most of the bugs figured out,” he said.

D”Arcy informed me that he and Chris got into the Cooperative just in the nick of time.“Just after we got in, the cooperative closed their doors to other producers.” There are currently 17 million litres of goat milk being produced at the Cooperative by 100 producers in Ontario.

But those interested in the business should not be deterred. D’Arcy’s advice to others thinking of jumping aboard? “Seek your sales first and just make sure you have a market secured before you start. And then get on board because I think this market is really going to break loose.”