MALONE (NBC 26) — At LaClare Creamery in Malone Wisconsin, dairy is something the business has been founded on for decades.
But for the Hedrich family its not cows that they have been milking, its been dairy goats.
"We've been in the dairy goat business for about 45 years," Hedrich said.
Clara Hedrich was there back in the 1970's when it was simply two goats on a hobby farm.
Now, Hedrich says it's grown to a co-operative with more than 150 family farms.
"We have the highest concentration of dairy goats here in the United States," Hedrich said. "And its right in our back yard."
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I spoke with Cameron Jodlowski president of the Wisconsin Dairy Goat Association.
Jodlowksi says goat dairy farming is on the rise because certain areas of the buisness have less cost than traditional dairy.
"Goats in particular require some of the same nutritional aspects as our dairy cows," Jodlowski said. "However our goats require less intake to produce that milk."
According to Hedrich, it takes more goats to produce the same amount of milk as a dairy cow.
"I need at least 10 goats for every one cow that is on a dairy farm," Hedrich said.
But despite needing more numbers to equal the production of a single cow Jodlowski says Wisconsin is a perfect place for the dairy goat industry to thrive.
"A lot of our producers grew up milking cows with their grandpa or dad," Jodlowski said. "With this rich history they have here, they want to continue that dairy legacy."
And with that history, as well as dairy producing infrastructure Jodlowski says dairy goats have a bright future in the state of Wisconsin
"We are seeing a strong demand for goat milk, and its going to continue to grow and continue to scale as we continue to bring this to the market."
According to the U.S Department of Agriculture the current population of dairy goats in Wisconsin is at 78,000 which is up around 5 percent from 2024.
Wisconsin also leads the United States in the number of dairy goats per state by 40,000 over California. Which has only 38,000 dairy goats.
