Small farms making big cheese

MILTON, Iowa — Rufus Musser III started Milton Creamery LLC in May 2006. Twenty years later, its cheese can be found in grocery stores nationwide. What sets Milton Creamery cheeses apart is a bright yellow sticker on every package that reads, “Milk produced on small family farms.”

“The Amish and Mennonite community here in 2006, we were doing OK, but we’re very agriculturally based,” Musser said. “There was not much employment opportunity for the young people in the community. The opportunity to spread and expand our idea was there. We thought we could grow into a premium milk market and give local people an opportunity for jobs.”

Milton Creamery employs 30 people and sources its milk from eight farms that milk 25-80 cows.
The farms raise many breeds, but most are Holsteins and Jerseys.

Musser grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania, where he worked with beef, poultry and produce. As he helped manage the produce stand, he enjoyed the personal aspect of creating relationships with customers — customers who knew who was taking care of and growing their food.

Musser had family members who had cows and was familiar with dairy farming. After moving to Iowa, he had a herd of his own, milking 45-60 cows in a stanchion barn for 10 years. Through that decade, Musser wanted a way to reconnect with people.

“We got into the dairy business here in 1992,” Musser said. “But I loved the interaction with people on the produce farm. That was one of the biggest drivers to looking at something else.”

While researching how to make the creamery idea work, two Amish men knocked on his door. The pair was trying to create a settlement, 20 miles southwest of Milton, and were looking for a market for their dairy. By pairing together, Musser had a direct line to quality farms and people, where he could create a premium milk market in Van Buren County on the Missouri border.

“Things evolved and we got more people involved,” Musser said. “But the focus was always on small family farms.”

Milk quality is Milton Creamery’s major factor for choosing source farms. The creamery remains competitive with pricing, a challenge that Musser faces when taking on other companies that have been in business for longer.

“Naturally, when you only have a 20-year track record, you’ve got to be keen on giving the farmers a price that makes sense,” Musser said.

Milton Creamery also places an emphasis on traditional farm methods, with many source farms using pastures and practicing land stewardship.

“Taking care of the ground is important for our farmers,” Musser said. “I find that there’s a concept building generationally for years and years that you are trying to take care of the soil and the surroundings so that you have something for the next generation and multiple generations.”

Another hurdle the creamery faced was cheese production, something that Musser himself had no experience with.

“We had done research for years,” Musser said. “We found people within our community who had an interest in working with us and wanted them to be invested in the process. You can’t just put somebody in a position if they’re not convinced there’s crawdads in the creek. You’re not going to find crawdads if you don’t believe that there’s something there.”

Milton Creamery made connections within the cheese industry, working with a cheesemaker from northeast Iowa and with Neville McNaughton, a New Zealander who has helped shape many of the specialty cheeses throughout the country.

“He (McNaughton) told us to struggle through the first month, then we’d be ready to listen,” Musser said. “He understood the nuts and bolts of cheese making, from the little vats and trying to do things that made a difference. He was a great mentor on the production, coming up with formulas and helping us hone in on what matters on the specialty cheese side.”

Musser now serves as the face of Milton Creamery across the country, traveling to trade shows and helping introduce their products to new markets and stores. Milton Creamery works with several large-scale distributors that have helped the milk from eight family farms in southern Iowa find grocery store shelves in Hawaii, Alaska and New York, and everywhere in between.

“People love to know where their food comes from,” Musser said. “There’s a trust factor there when they realize that there’s a face behind the brand, there are real people who are telling stories. We dove into social media for some of our marketing so we can help connect our Amish-Mennonite community with people around the world.”

Building a connection between farmers and consumers also helps build trust in the product. Consumers see the yellow sticker on an 8-ounce package of cheddar, and know exactly where the cheese was produced, where the milk was sourced, and ultimately how the product was made.

“It’s important for people to feel connected to what we’re doing,” Musser said. “It’s real food that they can trust. Our farmers are great people to work with. That resonates with the larger food community out there. I’m a strong believer in the ‘it takes a village’ concept, and our community is what makes this work. We know our creamery would have never survived without the trust of our farmers.”