freshest milk in the country??

dannycorona

Hi

Just need to gauge a reaction for an idea i've had recently, not exactly reinventing the wheel!

I live on a dairy farm and am currently thinking of processing the milk on farm instead of sending to the creamery, and bottling in the old style glass bottles, which i feel people would love to use again.

Milk you buy in the supermarket can spend 3 days in a tank on the farm, a similar amount of time lying in the creamery and then transported to supermarkets where it could be lying on a shelf for days. realsitically speaking the milk you get from the supermarket could be 10 days old by the time you use it.

My thinking is that having my own processing plant, i could have the product processed on farm and delivered to the customers door within 12-24 hours of milking from the cow guaranteeing the freshest milk in the country.

the milk will be pasteurised (killing the bacteria) but not homogenised(breaking down the cream content).

The plan is to create a delivery run around my loacality to distribute it.

Any feedback on what you think of this food product would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Glenbhoy

With the success of farmers markets around the country people certainly profess to want the sort of product you are hoping to offer, the question is will they pay the premium and how big will your premium have to be in order to make this venture profitable.

Milk is, as I'm sure you are aware an extremely competitive product, are there complaints out there from dairies complaining that the supermarkets are selling it below cost as a loss leader? From my own perspective, I'm happy to buy the cheapest milk on the shelf and it doesn't worry me, I like quality products, but for milk, I am not willing to pay any premium at all.
Can you product claim to be organic? Anti-biotic free? I don't know much about what's required for these claims, but I'm not sure that the product you are proposing would meet the criteria.

With regards to costs, aside from the cost of setting up the processing plant, you have to factor in the delivery costs, spoilage, revenue foregone by not selling your milk to the dairy etc.

In my opinion, this would be an extremely difficult business to make a go of, especially when relying on one product only, is there a possibility of creating other dairy products in tandem? Or is the market saturated with home made cheeses and cream etc?

Without an idea of potential costs it's difficult to evaluate properly, but for me this doesn't seem like a runner.

Chet Zar

Glenbhoy wrote: »

With the success of farmers markets around the country people certainly profess to want the sort of product you are hoping to offer, the question is will they pay the premium and how big will your premium have to be in order to make this venture profitable.

Milk is, as I'm sure you are aware an extremely competitive product, are there complaints out there from dairies complaining that the supermarkets are selling it below cost as a loss leader? From my own perspective, I'm happy to buy the cheapest milk on the shelf and it doesn't worry me, I like quality products, but for milk, I am not willing to pay any premium at all.
Can you product claim to be organic? Anti-biotic free? I don't know much about what's required for these claims, but I'm not sure that the product you are proposing would meet the criteria.

With regards to costs, aside from the cost of setting up the processing plant, you have to factor in the delivery costs, spoilage, revenue foregone by not selling your milk to the dairy etc.

In my opinion, this would be an extremely difficult business to make a go of, especially when relying on one product only, is there a possibility of creating other dairy products in tandem? Or is the market saturated with home made cheeses and cream etc?

Without an idea of potential costs it's difficult to evaluate properly, but for me this doesn't seem like a runner.

He's already said he has his own processing plant!

So that's the major associated cost taken care of. There was another guy on here only a week or two ago talking about the same idea. For me, I love the idea of this kind of service. As mentioned though, it's a question on whether it would be profitable or not - what kind of population is there in your immediate vicinity OP? Would you be hiring people to help with deliveries?

While I love the idea, I'm not sure that given the times there would be enough people willing to pay the premium for really fresh milk delivered to their door to make it profitable. But hard to say really without more info along the lines of the above.

jimmydkid

Farmers markets are a great place to test out new ideas, im not sure on the rules reguarding selling milk. It sounds like a fairly labour intensive business

Glenbhoy

Chet Zar wrote: »

He's already said he has his own processing plant!

So that's the major associated cost taken care of.

I wasn't sure if that was the case or not as i thought the phrasing could be read either way (in my warped interpretation anyway). In any case, I'd like to hear back from the OP.

Chet Zar

Glenbhoy wrote: »

I wasn't sure if that was the case or not as i thought the phrasing could be read either way (in my warped interpretation anyway). In any case, I'd like to hear back from the OP.

You're right actually, it is a bit ambiguous as you could read it both ways. Ah the nuances of the English language!

YouBuyLocal

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056466252

Give this thread a read, it may answer some of questions

newman10

dannycorona wrote: »

Hi

Just need to gauge a reaction for an idea i've had recently, not exactly reinventing the wheel!

I live on a dairy farm and am currently thinking of processing the milk on farm instead of sending to the creamery, and bottling in the old style glass bottles, which i feel people would love to use again.

Milk you buy in the supermarket can spend 3 days in a tank on the farm, a similar amount of time lying in the creamery and then transported to supermarkets where it could be lying on a shelf for days. realsitically speaking the milk you get from the supermarket could be 10 days old by the time you use it.

My thinking is that having my own processing plant, i could have the product processed on farm and delivered to the customers door within 12-24 hours of milking from the cow guaranteeing the freshest milk in the country.

the milk will be pasteurised (killing the bacteria) but not homogenised(breaking down the cream content).

The plan is to create a delivery run around my loacality to distribute it.

Any feedback on what you think of this food product would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Have a look a this site. It is being done in Kerry

http://valentiadairy.com/

Love the idea of fresh milk

The Guvnor

A Good idea - perhaps ice cream or something value added like that would be even better if feasible?

Swampy

Great idea. I'd buy it.

dannycorona

Thanks for all the replies. To answer some questions, I dont have a processing plant on the farm at the minute, however one that would process the amount we are producing on the farm at the minute would be comparitively small and not overly expensive, I also hope we would get a county enterprise grant which would go a long way to paying for some of the setup costs. With regards premium prices for such a product it is hoped to keep the price in line with regular milk from the supermarket, eg 1.10e/litre. With regards milk return, people are only going tobe ordering what they want themselves and therefore there will be no returns. Friends of mine reckon that glass bottles is what people want back, what do you reckon, me personally would not mind the plastic bottle but would like the fact that the milk has not been lying around a creamery for a week before being transported to the supermarket, and is as fresh as possible??

Looking into the payment option i think receiving payment from customers will be difficult. Anyone have any experience or can recommend premium number payment systems? I feel they will be very expensive for what i'm proposing?

The Dagda

dannycorona wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies. To answer some questions, I dont have a processing plant on the farm at the minute, however one that would process the amount we are producing on the farm at the minute would be comparitively small and not overly expensive, I also hope we would get a county enterprise grant which would go a long way to paying for some of the setup costs. With regards premium prices for such a product it is hoped to keep the price in line with regular milk from the supermarket, eg 1.10e/litre. With regards milk return, people are only going tobe ordering what they want themselves and therefore there will be no returns. Friends of mine reckon that glass bottles is what people want back, what do you reckon, me personally would not mind the plastic bottle but would like the fact that the milk has not been lying around a creamery for a week before being transported to the supermarket, and is as fresh as possible??

Looking into the payment option i think receiving payment from customers will be difficult. Anyone have any experience or can recommend premium number payment systems? I feel they will be very expensive for what i'm proposing?

Some people in Co. Clare are set up, selling and delivering fresh milk in glass 1L bottles. They've just installed their own pasturising plant (5,000 litres per hour), and it seems to be working well for them. They're aiming to sell nationally (well, southern half) in the next year.

YouBuyLocal

The Dagda wrote: »

Some people in Co. Clare are set up, selling and delivering fresh milk in glass 1L bottles. They've just installed their own pasturising plant (5,000 litres per hour), and it seems to be working well for them. They're aiming to sell nationally (well, southern half) in the next year.

Any idea what they are called?

Update:
http://www.oileanfarm.ie/products.html

I expect this is them?

shangri la

I dont think that service would suit peoples modern lifestyles in so far as I would think if you broke periods down into 5 days peoples milk consumption would vary a lot so with a regular delivery cycle they would find themselves having too much or too little milk regularly. Having the processing plant already means that you dont stand to lose much if you try and it doesnt work out so put a few leaflets through doors and see what the interest is. Good luck.

YouBuyLocal

shangri la wrote: »

I dont think that service would suit peoples modern lifestyles in so far as I would think if you broke periods down into 5 days peoples milk consumption would vary a lot so with a regular delivery cycle they would find themselves having too much or too little milk regularly. Having the processing plant already means that you dont stand to lose much if you try and it doesnt work out so put a few leaflets through doors and see what the interest is. Good luck.

Thats one of the large reasons people stopped, since they were getting milk in supermarkets anyway.

BUT, its not fundamental. What you need is an online system where people can increase or decrease their supply easily without calling the delivery person.

Milk will last a couple of days if refrigerated, especially if its straight from the farm 12 hours before delivery.

So if you have too much milk in the fridge one day you can just cancel or reduce the delivery online the next day and the person delivering the milk prints out a list that is automatically compiled for him/her.

Automating as much as possible using software is a necessity, otherwise all of the reasons why this system died out in the first place will just come back and bite you in the ass, regardless of price. That is obviously not feasible for one sole producer, but can be done if producers cooperate in one platform.

Chet Zar

YouBuyLocal wrote: »

Thats one of the large reasons people stopped, since they were getting milk in supermarkets anyway.

BUT, its not fundamental. What you need is an online system where people can increase or decrease their supply easily without calling the delivery person.

Milk will last a couple of days if refrigerated, especially if its straight from the farm 12 hours before delivery.

So if you have too much milk in the fridge one day you can just cancel or reduce the delivery online the next day and the person delivering the milk prints out a list that is automatically compiled for him/her.

Automating as much as possible using software is a necessity, otherwise all of the reasons why this system died out in the first place will just come back and bite you in the ass, regardless of price. That is obviously not feasible for one sole producer, but can be done if producers cooperate in one platform.

Can't see Irish people logging on to manage their milk supply though!! But never say never, given the right platform

YouBuyLocal

Chet Zar wrote: »

Can't see Irish people logging on to manage their milk supply though!! But never say never, given the right platform

True, but if the milk is delivered along with a host of other groceries including dairy products, veg, preserves, even vacuum-packed meat, then they might.

And even with milk, if the app was well designed, yeah sure they would.

Chet Zar

YouBuyLocal wrote: »

True, but if the milk is delivered along with a host of other groceries including dairy products, veg, preserves, even vacuum-packed meat, then they might.

And even with milk, if the app was well designed, yeah sure they would.

Some would. The ultimate question is one of scale - will they do it in sufficient numbers to make it viable. It's not like ordering a book or DVD online - with food and fresh produce people generally want to be able to see and touch.

If I'm living close enough to a supermarket, speaking for myself I'd rather just spin out and go in, rather than sit at a computer - if for no reason other than getting out of the house. And when it comes to fresh produce, very often Irish people have a relationship with the provider (butcher, fruit and veg guy, baker), and so physically going to the provider is part of the whole experience and a way of life.

YouBuyLocal

Chet Zar wrote: »

Some would. The ultimate question is one of scale - will they do it in sufficient numbers to make it viable. It's not like ordering a book or DVD online - with food and fresh produce people generally want to be able to see and touch.

If I'm living close enough to a supermarket, speaking for myself I'd rather just spin out and go in, rather than sit at a computer - if for no reason other than getting out of the house. And when it comes to fresh produce, very often Irish people have a relationship with the provider (butcher, fruit and veg guy, baker), and so physically going to the provider is part of the whole experience and a way of life.

Its that relationship that I am saying can be enhanced and complimented online. You can portray character and personality through social media & video and producers that sell direct (according to a large US study in 2010) increase their sales by 75% on average by adding value through marketing or additional services. Adding value may mean going totally organic or taking some of the value added down the supply chain by producing not just milk but other dairy products and providing variety through eggs, etc. But it also can be done through engaging marketing, through online video, farm-tourism, hospitality, courses on organic farming etc... Aside from the revenue generated from these activities they also produce more sales. It is the relationship you're talking about with your baker/butcher/etc that this enhances, not takes away from.

These relationships can be enhanced "on the ground" through events like festivals, markets, trade events, on-farm activities, etc, but they don't need to be developed face-to-face every week.

Many cafes around the country are finding facebook to be an amazing way to build relationships and express their character through authentic online marketing. Customers actually know their names before they walk through the door, that would be unheard of in a conventional retail or chain cafe like insomnia. But the physical interaction only needs to happen once every 3-6 months for a customer to feel genuinely familiar with the person because online social media like blogs and facebook really humanise the person behind the business.

Check out Castlemine farm (http://www.castleminefarm.ie) and there is another partcularly good one that I can't remember the name of. These guys I see at every market http://www.thegoodelifefoodcompany.ie/ & http://www.organicmeat.ie/about/index.php

They just need a proper marketing platform rather than everyone building their own expensive website.

(I think about this too much)

antoinolachtnai

It does still need a lot of capital, to put the distribution network in and to bring first class marketing experience to bear over a sustained period.

YouBuyLocal

Yep, like this guy

http://www.jameswhelanbutchers.com/

BnB

YouBuyLocal wrote: »

Any idea what they are called?

Update:
http://www.oileanfarm.ie/products.html

I expect this is them?

My Sister in Law in Ennis gets Milk delivered from a farm in glass bottles and I'm 95% sure it's from these guys.

I was in there house over Christmas and had a glass of milk and I was astounded. There is simply no comparison whatsoever with the milk we have got used to drinking and this. It was just beautiful.

I grew up on a dairy farm and it reminded me of the milk I drank growing up.

It is a small bit more expensive than the supermarket stuff but the difference in taste is massive.

If they delivered in my area I would definitely be with them.

YouBuyLocal

BnB wrote: »

My Sister in Law in Ennis gets Milk delivered from a farm in glass bottles and I'm 95% sure it's from these guys.

I was in there house over Christmas and had a glass of milk and I was astounded. There is simply no comparison whatsoever with the milk we have got used to drinking and this. It was just beautiful.

I grew up on a dairy farm and it reminded me of the milk I drank growing up.

It is a small bit more expensive than the supermarket stuff but the difference in taste is massive.

If they delivered in my area I would definitely be with them.

As far as I can tell the only reason this doesn't take off is the lack of a consumer interface (like a shop - I use debauched tech jargon for fun). Basically if there is a place where a buyer and seller communicate this encourages sales, but with traditional delivery services the point was to limit the buyer & seller interaction for more efficient distribution. Now you can have an online space that expresses your personality and is the communications infrastructure, without the cost of a shop. We all know how butchers and farmers markets have relationships with their regulars and that brings people back. Well now you can suppliment that relationship with online communications, keeping track of stock, deals, seasonal food, new products, market dates & cancellations, on-farm activities, etc, etc... all without touching the phone. People think this takes away from the amount of times you interact with the "shop-keepers" but it actually enhances the interactions you have.

That says absolutely nothing about quality, and with regard to meat products or milk there really is no comparison. It is my view that with online "cluster buying" (my turn of phrase, I love that expression! think location-based Groupon, where the consumers are providing their general location [not address] to the merchant as opposed to the other way around) a producer can sell quality below the cost of the supermarket. This is because more consumers acting as affiliate marketers that are closer to each other makes for huge efficiency savings.