How a Milwaukee Zoo Became a Source of Milk for an Urban Cheesemaker
Milk House photo by Joel Miller-Milwaukee County Zoo
It isn't every day that you find a dairy operating in the heart of a county zoo, especially when it has been the city of Milwaukee's only working dairy farm since 1987. At the Family Farm dairy, inside Milwaukee County Zoo, there are five cows and three heifers with four of them currently milking.
The dairy has licenses for Grade A milk as well as Grade B milk – a requirement for milk that will become an ingredient in cheese. But all the milk from this dairy goes into one tank, where it is processed uniformly. On average, milk from the Family Farm dairy has 3.56 percent fat and 3.47 percent protein content.
Ayrshire Cow Kelly and Holstein Lacey - photo by Joel Miller-Milwaukee County Zoo
Current cow breeds include Ayrshires, Red and White Holsteins, and Black and White Holsteins. These cows typically yield about 255 pounds of milk per day for Clock Shadow Creamery. Pickups average once per week, and the zoo’s Family Farm milk comingles with milk from other dairies to create fresh cheeses. Think squeaky Wisconsin cheddar curds, plus quark (soft, cream, spreadable cheese), and ricotta (a creamy Italian classic).
History of Dairy at the Zoo
The dairy’s story began in the late 1980s, when what were then the Wisconsin Dairy Council and Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board approached Milwaukee County Zoo about operating an onsite dairy. “They brought in cows and milking equipment,” says Lisa Guglielmi, Assistant Curator of Milwaukee County Zoo Family Farm. “They got donations for all of it. The cows were initially donated, by farmers.
Family Farm milking by Joe Newell - - photo by Joel Miller-Milwaukee County Zoo
“We were selling our fluid milk to Borden’s milk, until their plant stopped coming here. We started selling to Golden Guernsey Dairy right after that. We were selling to Golden Guernsey and even kept sending milk to that plant after Foremost bought them out. Once Foremost bought out Golden Guernsey we became part of the co-op.”
The zoo’s dairy worked with Foremost for more than 15 years. And its milk went all over southeastern Wisconsin, including Dean Foods. Foremost sold milk to Dean for a while, possibly even after Foremost stopped picking up the zoo’s milk. “We didn’t choose to leave the co-op,” Guglielmi says. “But they didn’t want to pick up our milk anymore.”
Milwaukee Milk for Clock Shadow Creamery
About two years before Foremost stopped milk pickups, the zoo’s field rep reached out to Guglielmi about selling to Clock Shadow Creamery, a cheese company owned by Bob Wills, who also owns Cedar Grove Cheese. The rep had heard that Foremost might drop Family Farm milk pick-ups and he was fighting to keep them with the co-op.
“I am not sure Foremost would have paid us what Cedar Grove Cheese would have paid us, at the time, but they didn’t have a truck to pick milk up,” Guglielmi says. “Once Foremost dropped us, I reached out to the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association. Clock Shadow now had a truck and we joined up with Cedar Grove Cheese in 2015.”
The Family Farm
Today the Family Farm dairy purchases and breeds its own cows, onsite. Family Farm has also become a model for other zoos that want to incorporate dairies, including Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo, and Minnesota Zoo, in Apple Valley, MN. People from Winnipeg, Canada have visited the Family Farm dairy, too.
Family Farm maintains a satisfying and consistent relationship with Cedar Grove, which “drives out here for 1,600-1,700 pounds of milk, once per week,” Guglielmi says. “We’re not really ever told where our milk goes, since we give them a drop in the bucket.” But there’s a good chance that Family Farm milk has added richness, creaminess, and great flavor to those legendary cheese curds, quark, ricotta and more.