LYNDEN – Larry Stap is reaching into the past to make sure his dairy farm has a future.
Stap and his wife, Debbie, recently started Twin Brook Creamery after their daughter and son-in-law, Michelle and Mark Tolsma, indicated they wanted to be a part of the family business. The creamery puts milk into old-fashioned glass bottles and sells them at local stores.
The milk is pasteurized but not homogenized, so the cream rises to the top, similar to how milk was sold in the 1950s. The creamery acts as a supplement to Stap’s main business: a 250-cow herd supplying milk to the Darigold facility in Lynden.
Taking something as ordinary as milk and making it into a specialty item is a growing trend among local dairy farmers. In an industry faced with many challenges and price volatility, the number of dairies has been shrinking in Whatcom County. Ned Zaugg, director at the Washington State University’s Skagit County Extension Office, said Whatcom has fewer than 150 dairies right now with a projected milk production of $166 million for 2007. In 1996, there were 249 dairies in the county with $208.8 million in milk production.
Henry Bierlink, director of the Whatcom County Agriculture Preservation Committee, said specialty products provide stable income as the larger market struggles with issues, including rising feed prices and low commodity prices for the milk.
The push toward such products is one reason the Northwest Agriculture Business Center was created in April 2006, said David Bauermeister, executive director for the private, nonprofit organization. The center is located in Skagit County and serves a five-county area, including Whatcom.
“Our strategy is to make farming more profitable and one of the ways to do that is to help the farmer have better access to the market,” Bauermeister said. “In dairy, when you have commodity milk prices remaining low and land prices going up, it puts a strain on farmers. By creating more products, dairy farmers can sell more directly to the retailer, getting a price that is less reactive to market forces.”
Being a fourth-generation dairy farmer, Stap is used to the routine of early mornings, the long days fixing farm equipment and handling hundreds of Jersey cows. His new venture brings new tasks, and he’s embracing them with enthusiasm.
“This is an opportunity to develop a new market, which is a whole different game for me,” Stap said. “I’m excited about the chance to work with retailers and get to a point where I can show consumers how their milk gets to store shelves.”
Stap has eight cows devoted to the Twin Brook Creamery milk, producing about 93 bottles a day. Those bottles are shipped to local stores such as the Community Food Co-op in Bellingham and The Green Barn in Lynden.
The bottles were put into The Green Barn market in February, and the product has been selling well, said Josh Burger, who works at the Lynden store.
“Larry has been great to work with, especially in getting us more milk when we need it,” Burger said. “It has been a big hit with customers thinking about their health.”
Once the creamery reaches a certain level, Stap hopes to have a small retail area at the farm where consumers can visit and learn about the dairy business.
“It’s already been a valuable experience for me,” Stap said. “It’s worth the effort to have these conversations with consumers.”
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