A Direct-Market Dairy 

By Deborah Wechsler (2004)

Mauthes Dairy
Jamie and Kenny Mauthe
McComb, MS 39648
mauthesdairy@aol.com
www.mauthescreolecreamcheese.com 

A third-generation dairy farmer in a part of the country where 85 percent of dairy farms have gone out of business in the last 20 years, Kenny Mauthe has changed the way his farm produces and markets its milk so that it can be successful.

Kenny grew up on a Louisiana dairy farm about an hour from New Orleans. Nineteen years ago, he and his wife, Jamie, started their own dairy farm, located about 45 minutes further north in Mississippi. In 2000, as wholesale milk prices plummeted, they began to research alternatives to selling all their milk to the dairy co-op. “We were fixing to get out,” says Jamie. “We couldn’t handle the low prices. We had bought a store and I was working to support the dairy. We thought if we could do value-added we could hold onto the farm.”

Researching their options, Jamie and Kenny visited other farms that had made a success of on-farm bottling and processing, such as Bergey Dairy, in Virginia Beach. Then, with the help of their local extension agent, they connected with the manager of the New Orleans farmers’ market, who was looking for farmers to produce Creole Cream Cheese, a regional favorite that hadn’t been available for 20 years. Explains Jamie, “It’s a tart, soft product similar to yogurt or crème fraiche. You make it with skim milk and then pour heavy cream on it. People of French background ate it sweet, German families ate it savory, with salt and pepper.” They also talked to local chefs, who expressed interest in the product. It sounded like something that might work out as a lead product for the dairy.

In May of 2001, they put in a plant to bottle milk and make the cream cheese, using the old milking parlor at the Kenny’s father’s farm in Folsom, Louisiana, rather than their own farm. “We weren’t sure how well it would do,” says Kenny, “so we put 10-15 cows down there and started with their milk.” This put their processing closer to their New Orleans market and also allowed them to have a milk source separate from their main herd, which was under contract to the dairy co-op that they were members of for all milk produced. However, it didn’t take long for their product to take off. “When an article about us came out in the New Orleans Times-Picayune,” says Kenny, “the demand skyrocketed. There wasn’t enough milk, and we began hauling milk down.”

They were able to work out an arrangement that on paper they sell the milk to the co-op and buy it back for processing, though it never actually leaves their hands. The Mauthes were the first members of their co-op to begin processing part of their own milk, so policies had not been set. “We were lucky because the person who manages the co-op locally knew us,” says Jamie. “There could be concern that if it works for us they might lose other farmers.”

Setting up the processing plant cost about $40,000. They were able to obtain their processing equipment secondhand from dairies that had gone under and they worked closely with the board of health on plant design. “All the guidelines were for big plants, but small dairies were new to them,” says Jamie. “They worked with us, we all worked together.” They also worked with Louisiana State University to develop their recipe.

At the same time as they began processing their milk, the Mauthes went from a traditional silage-based production system to a pasture-based grazing system as a way to reduce input costs. SSAWG facilitated this process by helping them look at their operation as a whole and the benefits of rotational grazing. Before, they bought silage and brewers grain for feed, and, says Jamie, “We thought nothing of buying a $3000 load of alfalfa hay.” Says Kenny, “It wasn’t a hard transition, since we had always used our winter grasses, but we’re still learning. For the last two years we’ve strictly relied on grass, with a grain supplement.” Pastures are bahiagrass and common bermudagrass May through October and ryegrass and oats November through May. They do some controlled grazing, but the demands and distance of their processing plant have required them to rely on hired help at the farm, so complicated grazing management is difficult. Their milk is hormone- and antibiotic-free.

The Mauthes sell most of their products at the New Orleans “Crescent City Farmers’ Market,” which has four different locations on four days of the week. They bring their products to the market in ice-chests. They also sell to 25 stores. At first they did their own store deliveries, but have since contracted with a local meat company to do the deliveries for them. Recognizing that continuing contact with their customers is important, however, the Mauthes plan to eventually get their own truck.

Currently, they produce bottled milk, Creole cream cheese, yogurt, cream, sometimes butter—and cheesecakes. In December of 2001, a customer handed Jamie a recipe and suggested that she make them. “I tried it and everyone begged for it,” she says. Now, she makes 30-40 a week. She was about to build a commercial kitchen when a friend nearby offered her a small building she could convert—a quicker, less expensive solution that also gave her more space. She is pleased that some of the restaurants that use her cheesecake put the farm’s name on the menu and give them credit for the product—and a little more publicity. Though she intends to keep this part of the business small, she’s recently hired her cousin to help bake.

As the Mauthes focus on adding value to their milk and switch to pasture-based dairying, they are able to make more money on a smaller herd. They are making a better profit milking 60 cows and processing part of it themselves than they did when they milked 120 and sold it all wholesale through the co-op. The Mauthes plan to expand yogurt production and are in the process of adding ice cream to their products. The “Creole Cream Cheese Ice Cream” will be sold in small cups and coated bars. Rather than make the ice cream themselves, they are contracting with a local specialty ice cream maker. “We’ve been working out the recipe for the last year,” says Jamie. Adds Kenny, “I’d also like to see us be able to make specialty cheeses like mozzarella. I think there’s a big demand. I’d like to use all the milk that we produce.” Moving the processing plant to their home farm is also a priority—having it an hour away from home adds stress and travel time and makes it hard to manage their herd as closely as they’d like. Says Jamie, “Our job now is to organize everything and produce a little more. Now, we have options we didn’t have before.”  

Location: Southwestern Mississippi, 100 miles north of New Orleans. Processing plant and smaller milking herd in Folsom, Louisiana, 40 miles from New Orleans.
Climate zone:  8 Soil type: Sandy loam.
Acreage: 335 total—200 in pasture, 100 wooded. 10 additional acres at Louisiana location.
Crops/livestock: About 100 cows, milking 60 (Holsteins, Jerseys and Holstein-Jersey crosses). 130 free-range chickens for eggs.
Value-added products: Non-homogenized bottled milk, Creole cream cheese, cheesecakes, yogurt, butter, cream
Notable facilities and equipment: Double-4 milking parlor, 30x40 processing plant with 200-gallon vat pasteurizer, cream separator, processing vats, etc.
Weeks in production: Year-round.
Markets: 70% of milk wholesale through Dairy Farmers of America co-op. 30% of milk as value-added products direct marketed to consumers and restaurants
Labor: Jamie and Kenny Mauthe, full time; their adult daughter, Katie, works in the plant and handles sales; two teenage sons handle feeding the stock; Kenny’s father, Henry Mauthe, manages and milks herd at processing plant; additional part-time helpers for baking, milking, herd care, and in plant.