With 15 Swiss and Normandy milk cows, central Iowa dairy farmer Kevin Dietzel is a small operator with a business plan — “add value to that milk by making cheese” — aimed at the growing demand for upscale local foods, says Harvest Public Media. “We have to do something that’s a little bit more original and is also going to be worth that money,” says Dietzel, who makes small batches of cheese on the farm.
The up-front investment in cheese-making equipment is significant but Stephanie Clark, a dairy scientist at Iowa State University, says that every year there are one or two new startups in Iowa like Dietzel and his wife, Ranae, who decide to make specialty cheese. Says Harvest Public Media, “Obviously, there are expenses beyond what a milk-only dairy has. But small, all-in-one businesses make money with cheeses that fetch a premium.”
Membership in the American Cheese Society, whose members are home and on-farm cheese makers, has doubled in the past 15 years, to around 1,700. “They’re places making cheese on the same site where the cows are raised and milked,” says Harvest Public Media. “The key to their success is specialty or niche markets”