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From Grass to Goats to Cheese: Farm Based Cheese-Making at Capri Cheese
Nov-Dec 2002
by Liz Rose
©2002 Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service

On a small valley farm in western Richland County, Wisconsin, a gentle ringing sound fills the air as goats graze with Swiss bells around their necks. Felix Thalhammer and his son Leif lead the belled does down from the pasture for evening milking. This is the home of Capri Cheese, Felix's goat dairy and cheese business, certified organic by MOSA. Felix, with the help of his wife Catherine Young and their children, 8-year-old Leif, and 8-month-old Celeste, manages the operation--from pasture and hay production to marketing cheese.

Felix started milking goats in 1995 when they discovered goat's milk was the way to get then one year old Leif to put on weight. Felix explained "Leif did really well with goat's milk…goat's milk is what he was thriving on." So that year they started milking two goats. There was ample milk around their home. So Felix made cheese with the extra goat's milk. Thus began a new adventure: the creation of a "cheeserie," just like it is done in Felix's native Switzerland. There, "small family operations make cheese where the milk is produced--without trucking the milk from far away," Felix says. As a result, he explains, "Capri Cheese is fresh and has seasonal variations of flavor. It is dependent upon what the goats eat and how weather affects the bacteria in the cheesemaking process."

In developing the "cheeserie" Felix increased the herd and studied the art of cheese making. The family decided to certify their farm and processing facility, as no other certified organic goat cheeses in the area were being made. They had already chosen to farm organically from the start, and grew most of their own food organically. With college degrees in soil and water resources, Catherine said "I am greatly concerned for the health of soil and water on the farm and how it affects the ecology of the trout stream which begins here."

Cheese sold on the market must be made by a certified cheese maker, as required by the State of Wisconsin. To become a certified cheese maker Felix went to a cheese-making class offered by the University of Wisconsin Extension and completed a 12-month apprenticeship with a certified cheese maker. The final step for Felix was to take and pass a cheese-making test.

Currently Felix milks 27 Nubian goats. "They are all Nubians more or less but not registered Nubians," says Felix. He is increasing the herd by keeping female kids and purchasing kids from another operation. His plan is to milk fifty or so goats so that he can make cheese every 3 1/2 days. He expects to be milking fifty does by the winter of 2004. "I have eleven does that were born last year that will milk this winter ('03) and 25 will be added next winter ('04)."
Felix buys the goats' grain premixed. His custom organic mix of wheat, oats, corn, soybeans, soybean oil, mineral and salt, which he developed, is 15 1/2% protein, 1% salt, 1 1/2% kelp, 1% dairy mineral. Milking animals receive 3 pounds of grain per day.

Each year, Felix puts up 1200 to 2000 forty pound bales of grassy alfalfa hay in the hay mow. Felix would like to improve his hay stands, which he says are currently 60% grass, 20% clover and 20% alfalfa. He would like to see hay with 50% clover, 40% alfalfa and 10% grass. "I have purchased good alfalfa hay and production goes up 20% with good alfalfa hay," Felix explains. He hopes to improve hay stands by applying manure. He also wants to improve hay quality by cutting hay earlier than he has been, for optimal protein.

Felix rotationally grazes his goats. He has twenty acres of pasture fenced and would like to fence more paddocks in the future. Each paddock is one to 1 1/2 acres. Felix reports little nuisance weeds in pastures, as goats are thorough eaters. They even eat thistle. For pastures far from the barn, Felix has what he calls a mobile "goat house". The "goat house" stores 100 bales of hay for convenient winter feeding and offers shelter from heat or cold year round. He rotates pastures every twenty days in an attempt to avoid parasite problems and to maintain pastures. In the future, Felix would like to rotate does to a new pasture every seven to ten days to accommodate an expected increase in herd size, and for better animal and pasture health. He must fence more pastures before this is possible. He fences pastures with electric fencing and woven wire as well as barb wire. Where woven wire is in place, Felix uses two additional strands of electric fencing. Otherwise, for kids, Felix uses three strands of electric or for does he uses two strands of electric. He puts a strand of barb wire at the top to protect the electric fencing from deer. Felix likes to improve pasture by frost seeding red clover in the spring.

Felix tries to schedule breeding to allow milk production and cheesemaking to begin before the start of the Farmer's Market at the end of April. In early September he puts the buck in with the does to breed, using a special program he developed for increasing the percentage of female offspring. Goats have a five month gestation period. He likes to dry up bred goats in the beginning of December, around two to three months after does are bred. He stops milking and decreases grain for a week to dry up does. He generally gets at least 30% triplets and 30 to 50% twins. Felix says "good feed when breeding will increase the rate of twins."

More than any aspect of Capri Cheese that Felix manages, herd health is most important. To give newborn kids a healthy start Felix leaves kids in with does to nurse for two or three days. Kids are then bottle fed for six weeks. Horns are burned off early in the spring before fly pressure increases the risk of infection. Felix maintains his herd's hooves by trimming them twice a year. "Goats don't have much trouble with their feet," explains Felix, "trimming takes care of any rot".

Felix's greatest health concern is mastitis. He monitors for mastitis with somatic cell count (SCC) tests. Felix uses the California Mastitis Test (CMT) at home for a ball park indicator of SCC's. At times he will have a SCC test done off-farm for a more accurate result. With most cases of high SCC's, Felix can spot the condition, as the doe will look sick (coat, eyes, breathing, etc). To help prevent mastitis, Felix tries to keep the barn and loafing area dry and clean. He tries to keep milking time consistently on twelve hour intervals. As well, he makes his own teat dip with herbal oils and Teat Neat (from Impro), in a water base.

For general health, all goats are fed a mixture of vinegar, garlic and diatomaceous earth. Goats that appear to have a rising SCC will get extra vinegar and garlic. He uses a turkey baster to feed the solution as needed. According to the NOP 205.238(c)(1), health treatments may not be synthetic unless an "approved" synthetic is used. Non-organic non-synthetics, or naturals, are allowed unless listed on the National List 205.604. The Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) clarifies that non-organic herbs may be used for health treatments, but organic herbal preparations must be used if the preparation is a feed additive. As always, check with your certifier with all questions regarding the acceptability of feed and health inputs.
Felix finds it best for herd health to breed does at 1 1/2 years old rather than at nine months. When nine month old does are accidentally bred, Felix says "these does have all sorts of problems; they are small, health is poor and production is low. It doesn't pay to breed them early."

For milking, Felix has a new milking parlor adjoining the barn and their new "cheeserie." On either side of the milking parlor are 7 raised stanchions on a platform for a total of 14 stanchions in the parlor. Felix uses a New Pulse, Boumatic, and Surge customized system with a pipeline delivering the milk to the bulk tank.

Cheese Making
Felix makes cheese once a week. "The ideal situation would be to make cheese twice a week," explains Felix, "because bacteria increases in the milk with time". The 250 gallon bulk tank holds the milk until it is time to make cheese. Milk is first pasteurized. Legally, feta must be pasteurized because it is a high moisture cheese. High moisture cheeses have a greater tendency to harbor bacteria and thus must be made from pasteurized milk. But with drier cheeses like Felix's "govarti", pasteurizing is legally optional. Felix chooses to use pasteurized milk for "govarti" as he feels it makes a better cheese.

After the milk is pasteurized it is cooled to 880 F. The water used to cool the milk is reused by piping it over to the goats in the adjoining building for them to drink. The rennet and culture are then added. Rennet is a coagulant used to help the cheese set up. The cheese culture is a bacteria particular to the type of cheese being made and changes the lactose in milk to lactic acid. The milk is then left at a constant temperature until the cheese is "set". When the cheese is set, Felix cuts it into cubes with what looks like a large square tennis racket strung with a fine-gauge wire. This determines the size of the curds. The cheese curds and whey are scooped out of the vat and put in molds to drain on a drain table. As the whey drains out, the cheese firms up. It is then stored to age. After aging, the cheese is cut and vacuum packed in brine for retail sale or sold bulk to restaurants. Felix is not concerned with slight variations in the final product. He says, "customers appreciate variability in this artisan cheese."

Capri Cheese produces four types of cheese, "govarti" (a gouda type goat cheese), a fresh feta, an aged feta and a tomato basil feta. They hope to introduce a new "sharp" feta soon.The Capri Cheese Factory is a new building with new and used state-of-the-art equipment. Some equipment was fabricated for Capri Cheese, such as the curd baskets where the whey drains.
In any business venture, marketing can be a big challenge. But small farmers like Felix must face this challenge while also farming, caring for animals, milking, and processing. Time, money, and marketing know-how is often limited. Felix began by contacting food coops, restaurants, and grocery stores, and attending the Dane County Farmer's Market. He has been able to reach many goat cheese enthusiasts and has built quite a clientele. He finds in-store promotional opportunities very helpful. Felix sets up a table display and hands out samples of his cheeses. The customers take home not just a package of cheese but a relationship with the farmer who produced the cheese, and in this age of corporate food which travels around the globe and back again, that means a lot to consumers.

Felix got his start in farming back in the early 80's. He came to the United States from Switzerland as an IBM Selectrics typewriter mechanic. "I wanted to do something different when I came here; I wanted to work on a farm," Felix says. The SATIVA program based in Madison offered Felix the opportunity to learn about what organic farms were doing in the Midwest. So without any formal training or background Felix set out to build a sustainable yet profitable farm business, just as he had hoped.