Dairy producers bottle farm fresh milk
 |
|
Blaine and Kathy Goetz, Capital Electric members from Sterling, bottle and sell Bessy's Milk products in Bismarck, Mandan and Dickinson. |
“Skim milk is not milk; it’s just water with a vitamin,” laughs Kathy, who is only half-joking. She says companies who make skim milk eliminate the cream to reduce the fat. Vitamins are part of the cream, so when the fat is cut, so are the vitamins. They are later added back in, but the vitamins don’t come from cows — they are made somewhere in China.
“Our whole milk is all-natural, straight from the cow. We don’t use synthetic hormones or vitamins. The only ingredient in our milk is milk, and it’s still very low in fat,” Blaine says with pride.
“Why mess things up?” he asks. “Mother Nature did a great job.”
This June in honor of Dairy Month, Capital Electric Cooperative is proud to spotlight the Goetz family, who own and operate Bessy’s Milk.
Gary Hoffman, executive director of the N.D. Dairy Coalition, says the dairy industry is vital to North Dakota because it creates more economic activity than any other agriculture enterprise. That’s one good reason to support dairy farmers like Blaine and Kathy. Another is their milk products taste really good.
“Ag producers are getting less and less of the consumer food dollar, so it’s important to support locally grown and locally processed food operations,” Hoffman emphasizes. “Dairy farmers are hardworking families that care about their animals and produce a healthy product. The Goetz family is no exception; they are proud of the product they produce and the industry they represent.”
The people
Blaine’s parents, Dominick and Dorothy Goetz, moved into
 |
|
Every dairy family has at least one friendly milk cow. For Blaine (left) and Travis Goetz, it’s number 221 — better known as Bessy. |
the Capital Electric Cooperative service area when they bought their farmstead back in the 1940s. When they retired, Blaine and Kathy took over in the 1980s. It’s now a third-generation dairy farm; their son, Travis, helps full time with the operation. In total, Blaine and Kathy have three sons, one daughter and eight grandchildren.
Family members and hired help used to milk 250 Holsteins twice a day. Kathy explains how it consumed all their time.
“We rarely did anything except work, sleep and eat,” she remembers.
Instead of expanding the operation to generate more income to feed two sets of families, the Goetz family reduced their herd size to 100 and followed Blaine’s dream of starting a bottling operation. After much research and thought, they bought the necessary equipment and named the business “Bessy’s Milk.”
“We always have a favorite cow in the herd, one Bessy,” Kathy remarks. “So we named our business after the cow because she does all the work.”
The process
Although they may someday sell cheese and yogurt, the Goetz family currently sells white and chocolate milk. To get their products from cow to counter, they work together with the three students they employ from Korea, Japan and Brazil.
The process begins in the barn, where 12 cows are milked at a time. The milk is funneled into a truck and transported less than a block away to their bottling facility. Once there, the milk goes into a vat pasteurizer for two and a half hours. When the temperature reaches 145 degrees, the milk is held for another 30 minutes; this eliminates any “bad” bacteria. Then the milk is homogenized and cools; this process takes 15 seconds. The homogenizer sends the milk onto an 800-pound holding tank where it is kept briefly before it is bottled. Milk jugs are then stacked on a conveyor and someone manually adheres the labels. Equipment then fills the jugs with milk, and another person taps the covers into place. The milk is then stacked on a cart and pushed into a refrigerated room until it is ready to be shipped to grocery stores in Bismarck, Mandan and Dickinson. Equipment is manually cleaned by hand, and the production is repeated, and repeated and repeated.
Blaine says the process is “old school” and not the same as larger companies.
“It’s less complicated,” he reveals. “With the low pasteurization of 145 degrees, all the nutrients stay in the cream.”
Like other, larger companies, Bessy’s Milk products are tested and approved by an inspector from the state lab.
The product
When guests drop by the Goetz dairy and purchase milk that was produced only hours before, they often comment on the flavor of the milk.
“It’s what fresh milk is supposed to taste like,” Kathy affirms. “It tastes natural.”
To promote their products, Kathy and Blaine host grocery store promotions, giving potential customers a free sample of milk. So far, word of mouth has been their best form of advertising because people like the rich taste and appreciate the farm-fresh quality.
So far, business has been steady. It’s all Blaine and Kathy could hope for.
“We’re very proud to make a good product. When customers thank us, we feel like we accomplished something,” Blaine says.