North Carolina Dairies Diversify to Create New Revenue Sources
In partnership with: North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services
Farmer Randy Lewis inherited a love for cows from his grandmother, but plummeting milk prices and rising costs meant he had to do more than milk them to keep the farm. “It got to where we were going to have to do something or quit,” says Lewis, a fifth-generation farmer who owns Ran-Lew Dairy, a farm with 50 cows in Snow Camp. “We needed to have it sustainable where the next generation could come in and have a living and not just an existence. Creating a value-added product was the only way we were going to make this work. We couldn’t play that game with economics of scale – we had to find a way to make more money with less.”
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In 2013, Lewis received a grant to build a milk-bottling operation on the farm. Today, he delivers cream-top, low-temperature pasteurized milk, chocolate milk, buttermilk and half-and-half to small grocery stores, restaurants, wholesale distributors and direct to consumers under the Ran-Lew label.
In 2019, North Carolina dairy farmers produced about 105 million gallons of milk valued at $174 million, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. Financial losses over the years have forced dairy farms throughout the state to consider additional income through agritourism, new technology, operational size increases or diversification to remain afloat.
Dairies Diversify
In fact, floats are on the menu at the Nutter family’s Maple View Farm in Hillsborough. The 160-cow farm started bottling its own milk in 1996 and soon after started making ice cream. By 2000, fifth-generation farmer Roger Nutter opened a store on the farm.
Today, Maple View Farm distributes private-label milk and butter to grocery stores, coffee shops, restaurants and day cares within a 50-mile radius. Nutter also sells directly from the farm, offering a range from skim to whole milk, ice cream cakes, floats, sundaes and various seasonal flavors of ice cream to complement the farm’s 15 standard flavors.
Pre-pandemic, the farm routinely catered ice cream sundae bars and cup-and-cone parties at company picnics and university events. When COVID-19 struck, the farm pivoted to drive-thru and curbside ice cream services.
“We have had to get creative about how we’ve sold milk,” says Nutter, whose typical retail and restaurant operations closed or reduced to partial capacity during the pandemic. “We’ve gotten into several different food box programs and have been able to supply milk for that. That has really helped a lot.”
Meeting Demand
At Ran-Lew Dairy, Lewis added gelatos and started to offer “cowside pickup” for this frozen dessert, as well as the farm’s reduced-fat, whole and chocolate milks, all in non-homogenized form. This means the milk naturally separates with cream at the top like in the old days, requiring a good shake before consumption. Ran-Lew Dairy milk meets a niche demand from consumers who want as close to “out-of-the-cow” freshness and taste as possible.
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“There is a lot of interest all over the state for local products, and our Department of Agriculture does a really good job of promoting local products,” says Lewis, a member of the Department’s Got To Be NC initiative to promote local food. “The pandemic should make people wake up and realize our entire economic system, including our food supply chain, can break. If it does, you will need a local supply of just about everything you need. If you don’t support the local economy when you don’t need it, it won’t be there for you when you do.”