Agritourism key for growing Allen County dairy farm
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The fifth-generation owner of a more than 125-year-old dairy farm in Fort Wayne says agritourism is becoming an increasingly important aspect of his farm’s success.
Kuehnert Dairy recently received a $100,000 grant from the Dairy Business Innovation Alliance to help create a cheese curd manufacturing operation on the farm and plans to open The Milk House, an on-site retail location in early 2024.
Andrew Kuehnert says the new additions were built off the success of the farm’s annual Fall Festival that has grown every year for more than a decade.
In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, Kuehnert said The Milk House will allow the farm to make fresh products very quickly.
“Our cows are giving milk 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and we’ve got a pipeline that we run directly from those cows. So the cows give them milk and and that goes right through the pipeline right into our processing facility,” he said. “From there, we’re going to take that milk, and we’re going turn that into all sorts of different things.”
Inside The Milk House will be the Udder Upp Cafe, which will sell glass bottles of white milk, chocolate milk, and several other unique flavors such as cotton candy, cookies and cream, and root beer, Kuehnert said. Visitors can also order artisan pizzas with cheese made from the farm, as well as hand dipped ice cream.
And, of course, the cheese curds that will be made thanks to the $100,000 grant will be sold.
“I’m very excited for farm fresh cheese curds and [to] be able to get milk from that cow that day and right into our cheese bat and make squeaky fresh cheese curds and have them available to sell that same day,” he said. “I think it’s pretty cool.”
Kuehnert Dairy has over 300 dairy cows in its farm, and bringing in visitors to see how the operation works and telling the farm’s story, according to its owner, needs to have a greater focus.
“So many people…don’t realize how much farmers do on a daily basis,” he said. “We’re always an open book. We really think that between agritourism and telling our side and doing this milk processing facility, this is really about the only way we’re going to be able to stay in business with a farm maybe of our size in the future.”
The grant from the DBIA, a partnership between the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association and the Center for Dairy Research in Wisconsin, is one of 41 that were awarded, totaling nearly $4 million to farm and dairy processing operations throughout the Midwest.
Kuehnert said earning the grant was not easy, as two previous applications were denied. The third time was the charm for Kuehnert, who called receiving the grant rewarding and fulfilling.
“I put many, many hours and tried using many resources to make my application as appealing as it possibly could be,” he said. “This grant will really help what we’re trying to do, hopefully will help us succeed here in the future.”
Specifically, the dairy farm says the funding will be used to purchase cheese making equipment, product packaging, and marketing and promotional services.
Kuehnert admits that they might have made an aggressive plan in terms of the number of products the milk processing facility will produce from the start, but there are plans to add more in the future such as yogurt and various press cheeses.
And the farm is in talks with local grocery stores to potentially carry various Kuehnert Dairy products. Kuehnert noted he also has plans to get into the home delivery market in the future, though it will take some time to build up the delivery fleet and employee base to make that happen.
The Milk House project has been a “huge leap of faith,” Kuehnert said, but he hopes it will take the farm to the sixth generation and beyond.
“It is a very, very, very large investment with what we’re doing and a lot riding on it with with the success of the milk plant,” he said. “I would say we’re very confident that once we get up and running, we can we can hopefully make everything work out, and I look for this to be something that for future generations of our family.”