GRANVILLE, Ohio — After relocating to central Ohio from Cincinnati, Maria Moss, was looking for some acreage close to Columbus, Ohio.
That’s when she found a 6.5-acre farm in Granville. The house and property needed a lot of work, and Moss’s only farm experience to that point came from volunteer opportunities, but she had a plan and was ready to work.
That’s where she’s been since 2016, raising British Guernsey dairy goats and providing raw goat milk through herd shares to nearly two dozen families.
“I just love animals and I’ve always wanted to farm and have goats,” Moss said. “It’s important to me that livestock products come from humanely raised livestock— that’s how they’re the most productive when they’re healthy and happy.”
Moss, who owns and operates Everday Acres in Granville, Ohio, talked about her business structure and welcomed visitors to her farm in Licking County on June 22 as part of the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association Sustainable Farm Tour and Workshop series.
British Guernsey goats
While trying to settle on a breed of goat Moss was introduced to the British Guernsey by a co-worker at OEFFA who was acquainted with a breeder in southeast Ohio.
“They’re really beautiful and they’re this medium size, so they fit the bill,” she said. “And there were some around that I could go get that weren’t across the country.”
Moss currently has 30 goats, 10 of which are in milk. “The rest are mostly those born last year and this year — so they’re like heifers of a cow dairy farm,” she said.
British Guernseys, a Golden Guernsey-type goat native to the Channel Islands in the United Kingdom, are primarily used for milk production. The milk has a high fat and protein content, ideal for making cheese and yogurt.
Herd shares
Moss works for the organic certification agency Oregon Tilth. Her schedule provides the flexibility to work from home, allowing her to indulge in her passion for raising animals, particularly goats. But her goats need to earn their keep. Moss intended to produce and sell goat milk from the start. She wanted the goats to pay for themselves via their milk.
In Ohio, it is illegal to sell or buy raw milk. However, owners or part owners of an animal or a herd can legally consume raw milk from their animals. A herd share allows individuals to purchase a percentage of the herd. Since they now own part of a herd, they can drink the milk.
“Frankly, if I had the money to set up a grade A or B dairy, then I would certainly do that,” she said. “But I don’t — so raw milk is kind of, the poor person’s way into a dairy.”
Moss uses the goat milk herd share program to sustain her farm. She currently has 22 herd share owners who consistently pick up raw milk. They pick up milk corresponding to whatever their share size is.
“I will lose people occasionally,” Moss said. “I’ve had people move, people whose kids decide they don’t like it so they don’t get it anymore, and that kind of stuff, which is fine — but it seems when people leave there’s always someone who joins to take their place.”
A full share is a gallon a week, a half share is a half gallon. She also offers quarter shares. Shareowners decide what day to pick up their milk without assistance from Moss. “You pick up your milk from the milk room, there’s a refrigerator in there so I don’t need to do anything,” she said. “A jar has their name on it and they leave new clean jars for me to fill up for that next week.”
When extra milk is available Moss uses it for personal consumption. “I have a neighbor who is really good at making cheese, cottage cheese and yogurt,” she said. “I end up giving her the extra milk and she shares what she makes with me.”
In the past, the herd produced milk from March through November. However, this year she’s looking to increase production by introducing a new breeding program and through artificial insemination.
“I bred two groups, one in late fall and then one in January and February,” Moss said. “I’m going to have kids again and I’m trying to see if that will help me milk year-round.”
Cleanliness
Since Moss keeps kids on the does, she only milks once daily. The kids are separated from the does at night and milked in the morning. In the milk room, an 8-by-10-foot shed with a milking machine, Moss follows her own set of protocols before and after milking. This includes using a sanitizing solution for the milk machine and the jars she fills.
“Everything is a single-time use,” Moss said. “I clean udders and do a pre- and post-dip with iodine, I wash my hands about 100 times a day — I just try to keep things very clean.”
Moss used the nonprofit Family-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, which connects producers who engage in direct marketing with attorneys to protect them from litigation, to write her herd share contract.
Moss said none of the herd share owners at Everday Acres has expressed concerns over potential bird flu contamination, since the H5N1 virus was found to have spilled over into dairy cattle earlier this year, but she’s aware of the situation. “I’m surprised that, I haven’t had any questions about it from my customers,” she said. “But it’s something to keep an eye on and I would understand if someone wanted to stop getting milk right now.”
Some consumers of raw goat milk tout the health benefits of the product. This isn’t one of Moss’s selling points, but she is willing to supply the milk to those who want to consume it.
“Some believe that it’s easier to digest than cow milk because of the size of the protein in the goat milk,” Moss said. “I don’t have any medical training, I don’t tell people goat milk is good for this, this and this — I let people do their own research and decide that raw milk is something that they want to try and then they can find me as a source for it,” she said.
