I did a search on the forum, and was surprised to find no results for "herd share". Is no one doing this? Or is the first rule of herd share don't talk about herd share?
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Happy for you, wish everyone had some option! LOL, your alive, imagine that! Stupid bureaucracy!
I don't have goats just yet and have been getting my milk through a milk share, from my favorite local homesteader. She milks half a dozen or so Alpines. It has worked quite well for her, she says she has no problem selling shares, even after having to raise her price due to the hay prices. She's very careful to dot all her i's and cross all her t's though, there's a disclaimer on every bottle about the dangers of raw milk and how it isn't for sale, and various documents I sign every year. We're in Michigan, they're fairly testy about such things, you're not even supposed to sell it as pet food, but thankfully they haven't done anything about the herd shares. (Surprisingly enough, I've been drinking it three years now and am still alive to tell the tale. LOL)
Last year I only had 3 does milking and I had enough to sell. It is legal to sell it for "animal consumption only" around here. Mine sold like hotcakes, the girls paid their own way all milk season and I believe they paid for the chicken feed, too. People came to my farm & bought it. They would pay a bottle deposit the first time and then if they returned my jugs I would charge only for the milk. Met some really nice folks. People just raved about the milk. Best they ever had, they all said. I think because no one else around here sells nigerian milk so of course it tasted sweeter to everyone. Of course I technically shouldn't have let them "tell" me how good it tasted...shrug. I feel like, really? My animals are disease tested, I am super scrupulous about hygiene, adn I only ahve a few milkers. Would they really bother trying to make trouble for someone as small time as me? It's not a business, per se....just trying to strike a better balance of the animals breaking even for themselves to s ubsidize our milk.
As far as I can tell, it is not illegal in NYS if you go about it carefully (and there have been some rumblings against it (see Meadowsweet Dairy's litigation here: http://www.farmtoconsumer.org/litigation-meadowsweet%20dairy.htm) But I'm now thinking I might not have enough milk to share!
There is just no way I can get certified. It's prohibitive, like...6 digits. I'm thrilled to hear I will have whey left over from cheese making. Between my heritage turkeys and my body builder husband, I know where it's going.
http://www.farmtoconsumer.org/raw_milk_map.htm
I did some searching on line yesterday. It's legal so sell raw milk in NY if you sell on site (on your farm) and there is mention of getting a license. I don't know the cost, or how hard that is.
Some states allow milk sales from herds of fewer than a certain number if the buyer goes to the farm. However, if you go to the effort of being a certified dairy, you can sell however much you want and to stores if you have enough.
I will tell you, however, that you can use far more milk than you think. Cream cheese is a favorite of mine *and* my family and friends. As I have more milk in a few months, I shall try many other types of cheeses but ricotta and cream cheese are so easy I already do those and am considering trying mozzarella this weekend when my granddaughter is here to help with the pulling. Ice cream is also good. I cannot imagine that I will have too much milk since there will always be takers for the ice cream and cheeses. If I had access to a commercial kitchen, then I could sell the cheeses and ice cream when I have lots of milk. Since I will only be milking two at a time, overload shouldn't be an issue for me. My "overload" is the whey right now since I won't have chickens until spring; I'm giving my whey to the woman from whom I buy my milk until freshenings in April.
Just out of curiosity, why don't you just sell the milk rather than herd shares? Most of the people I know of who purchased a herd share (while it was still legal in our state) did so because it was the only way they could get raw milk.
I'm not sure what the milk laws are in NY, but you might be able to do something like make soap with your excess! How many people will you be milking for? (if you weren't to sell any) and how many does will you have in milk at any one time? (in your projections)
Thanks for the responses. I may be overreaching here! I won't even have any milk at all until Spring 2015, and here I'm already worried about the excess. Maybe I should just take it as it comes, but I wanted to be sure I was on the right side of the law. Once I can see the need for a share, I'm inclined to join the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, to be sure I've dotted all my i's.
Can you tell I'm eager to get going?!
I don't think goat shares are as common as cow shares, especially with Nigerians because most of us don't have that much excess milk to sell. It's a great idea if you know that you're going to have an extra five or ten or fifty gallons every day. If you have any specific questions about selling milk, though, go ahead and ask!
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