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Jun 02, 2023

‘Value added’: With $1.8 million on

LEYDEN — Bree-Z-Knoll Farm with its 250 Holsteins, Brown Swiss and Ayrshires and

LEYDEN — Bree-Z-Knoll Farm with its 250 Holsteins, Brown Swiss and Ayrshires and 550 acres of cropland couldn't have kept going without Our Family Farms.

"In Massachusetts, you can't make enough selling into the wholesale market to meet expenses," said Angie Facey who, with husband Randy, owns and operates Bree-Z-Knoll.

But you can survive, and the Faceys plan to, if you sell milk for a premium price differentiating it from its competition.

That's where Our Family Farms, a 26-year-old branding co-operative, and a new $1.8-million creamery and processing plant that opened in April come in. The Faceys built the plant over two years, amid building material shortages — with a $1 million grant from state Massachusetts Food Security Infrastructure program and $800,000 in financing from state programs through the Franklin County Community Development Corporation and investment from the family.

Franklin County has not had a milk bottling plant for at least 30 years, with production centralized to larger plants long drives away, Facey said.

The Our Family Farms milk and cream bottled Wednesday at Bree-Z-Knoll Farm was milked from the 120 cows now in production Tuesday.

And it’ll hit 60 stores the following day, including Big Y Foods and Stop & Shop supermarkets and River Valley Co-op locations in Northampton and Easthampton and Foster's market right down the hill from the farm.

At retail, it sells for $5.40 and $6.99 a gallon.

"We all spend a lot of money on food," said Philip Korman, executive director of Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, or CISA, which is a longtime supporter of Bree-Z-Knoll and Our Family Farms. "But when you spend it locally, you are supporting local businesses and local farms. You are supporting the local farm infrastructure, the businesses and equipment dealers. You are supporting this landscape."

Nearly every farm in the state survives on the value added proposition, said Karen Schwalbe, executive director of the Massachusetts Farm Bureau Federation. That includes farm stands, pick-your-own stands and farms with bakeries and ice-cream stands or dairy farms selling cheese, yogurt or even cattle genetics.

Wednesday, visitors to Bree-Z-Knoll were treated to vanilla ice cream made by Townline Ice Cream in Bernardston with milk and cream from Our Family Farms processed at the new plant. There were also treats from Sweet Lucy's Bakeshop in Bernardston, which buys jugs of heavy cream from the plant.

Half and half on the production line at Bree-Z-Knoll Farm in Leyden. (Hoang 'Leon' Nguyen / The Republican)

"Our customers look for locally-grown foods and we’re happy to provide it," said Steve Smith, owner of Williamsburg Market.

Massachusetts has 108 dairy farms and it's a $45-million-a-year business, said Ashley Randle, newly appointed commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources. But those 108 farms are down from 300 or more just a few years ago. Bree-Z Knoll was one of 16 working dairy farms in Leyden in the 1960s. It's the last one surviving.

Randle, who grew up in South Deerfield as the fifth generation on her family's Indian Acres Farm, said on-farm processing is the future. There are four farms doing it now, Bree-Z-Knoll, McCray's Farm in South Hadley, Mapleline Farm in Hadley and Highlawn Farms in Lee.

"It's a way for farmers to take advantage of consumers’ desire for local products," she said. "We have more than 7 million consumers in the commonwealth."

Founded 26 years ago with eight member farms, Our Family Farms is down to just two members now, Bree-Z-Knoll and Gould Maple Farm in Shelburne, as others have closed or switched to organic operation.

Meant to create a local identity, Our Family Farms had its milk processed at Pioneer Dairy in Southwick until the company closed the creamery in 2005. Then Our Family Farms Milk was shipped off to plants outside the area, and often co-mingled with milk from other farms.

Gould's sells most of its milk now to the Agri-Mark plant in West Springfield where it is made into butter, powdered nonfat milk and other products.

Bree-Z-Knoll produces 370,000 gallons of milk each year. But right now, only a third of its production goes to the new plant, the rest is sold to Agri-Mark. And the plant only runs three days a week.

"I’d like to do more," Angie Facey said. "Not enough of our milk is sold through Our Family Farms. But it's up to demand."

To juice demand, she's introduced new products like half-and-half and heavy cream including larger containers of heavy cream sold to bakeries and restaurants.

There have been hiccups. At one point, Sweet Lucy's called and said the cream wouldn't whip.

"It's a nightmare for me," Angie Facey said.

Randy Facey explained there was too little fat in the cream. The cows were doing their job producing enough butterfat. But the homogenization machine wasn't set right.

There was cream rising to the top of the whole milk.

Angie Facey said they have both a high temperature short time pasteurization process that heats the milk to a temperature of approximately 161 degrees for 15 seconds and a pasteurizer that works slower and preserves more of the flavor in the cream and half-and -half.

Lots of commercial creams and halves and halves are ultra pasteurized for long shelf life, she said.

"It affects the taste," she said.

Soon she hopes to add flavored milk like chocolate and strawberry and possibly drinkable yogurt.

Through cleanliness — both of healthy cattle and a clean plant — and immediate refrigeration the Faceys have been able to get the code — or sell-by-date on tier products up to 20 or 25 days.

"That's something consumers look for," she said.

Our Family Farms went to recyclable PET bottles instead of cardboard. It's more flexible, she said, allowing for different sizes. And they avoid "leakers" and wastage. The new bottles also take labels well and with PET plastic, different from other milk bottles, stand out on the shelf.

But she's focused on taste, recalling how a retired farmer who quit drinking milk after selling his herd tried the Our Family Farms milk from the new plant.

"He told me it's the closest thing to raw milk right from the cow," she said. "That is the greatest compliment."

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