EASTON, Pa. -- The toughest of times turned into the best of times for dairy farmers Layne and Beth Klein.
But before they saw any positive benefits resulting from the toughest era of their lives, Beth uses the word "devastating" to describe the winter of 2002. That was the year "of horrible milk prices."
Adding to the Kleins' woes, a sick cow rolled on Layne's foot and dislocated it, relegating him to the sofa instead of the barn. Beth and their children scrambled to keep the dairy operation running, but the low milk prices forced them to borrow for fixed expenses such as feed, fertilizer and insurance.
"We were going in the hole," Beth said. In addition, their son was headed for college.
After reconfiguring every possible angle, the Kleins faced the fact that they had no choice but to sell the milking herd. It was an agonizing decision. The farm had been a family dairying operation since 1935, but the 70-head milking herd and most of the replacements were sold in early 2003.
The only bright spot Beth could see as was the hope that finally they could take their first vacation since their honeymoon, more than 25 years earlier. But before they took that vacation, the Kleins faced a nagging reality -- they needed to find a way to make the farm profitable if they wanted to keep it.
The few heifer calves they kept for "pets" grew up, had calves and started producing milk. The Kleins used as much as they could, fed some to the calves and gave away the rest to family and friends. Still they had excess milk from heifers they kept, not enough to have milk pickup but too much to use.
Layne decided to experiment with making cheese using the excess milk and mail-ordered a few kits for making cheese in the home.
The cheese tasted fantastic -- much better than the factory-produced cheese to which they were accustomed. The Kleins shared their cheesemaking experiments with friends who were duly impressed with the flavor.
Making cheese was a great hobby, but not one that Beth saw as a career move, when Layne dropped a "bombshell." He wanted to build up the herd and milk cows again. Milking cows was the only job he had ever known. He was a dairyman at heart. He loved his girls (cows).
"I understood his passion," Beth said. "I like cows too, but I was not happy at the thought of again facing fluctuating milk prices and the constant overwhelming workload."
Her husband convinced her that making cheese was a value-added product that could considerably boost the bottom line. They could open a store on the farm to sell raw milk, cheeses and farm-raised beef.
Beth soon shared his optimism and threw herself wholeheartedly into developing value-added products.
"If we were going to do this, we were going to do it right," she said.
The Kleins read extensively about cheesemaking and kept practicing in their kitchen. They researched the facilities needed to provide an on-farm business. In 2004, they started renovating a former chicken house for a creamery. They opened an on-farm store that October to sell milk and beef raised on their farm, and by December they were selling homemade cheese.
"It was amazing," Beth said. "Everything fell into place."
In addition to selling milk, beef and eggs, the Kleins have developed 20 varieties of cheese, drinkable and flavored yogurts and sell local and raw honey. Cream cheese has been a huge success, and a variety of flavors such as olive cream cheese are prepared in addition to spreads such as garlic and chive and bacon combinations.
Growth has been steady. The Kleins started with selling only 6 gallons of milk and now average 100 to 150 gallons daily. Customers come from New York City, the Pocono area and New Jersey.
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