Starter Kit. Idea 283 of 500. Cluster 14
Goat and sheep dairy in the north, where the animals already are
The mechanism, from the book
The smallholder sells raw to a collector at the gate and the collector sells to a packer who puts his own name on it. Denmark's farmers got rich the day they owned the creamery.
The first step
Visit goat keepers in one northern village and ask whether they milk their animals, how much each gives, and what they do with it. Have a small batch made into soft cheese or yoghurt, and take it to hotel kitchens and delicatessens in the north and in the city for a tasting. A chef or shop willing to order weekly shows the milk is worth collecting.
- Who pays first
- A hotel chef or delicatessen buyer who wants goat cheese without importing it, and will pay for a steady weekly supply.
- What leaves today
- The animals are already in the north, but their milk earns little or nothing, while the cheese it could become sells at dairy prices.
Ask first
- Department of Agriculture. Ask whether goat and sheep milk can be sold, and what testing it needs.
- the area Medical Officer of Health. Ask what a small cheese room needs before selling goat cheese.
Check before you spend
Whether the animals are healthy and the milk tested before cheese is sold, and whether the keepers agree to supply regularly.
Find out these three numbers
- How much milk does one goat give in a day?
- What would a hotel or shop pay for goat cheese?
- How many keepers in the village would supply?
A comparison from the book
Denmark. Chapter Eleven
"Its first co-operative dairy opened in 1882, and within 21 years the owners of most of Denmark's dairy cows were supplying one."
A dairy owned by the keepers can grow fast once the first few start supplying it.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.