Red Barn Farms: Supporting Family Dairy Farms in Wisconsin

Terry & Paula Homan Photo Credit Red Barn Family Farms

With a background in veterinary medicine and animal husbandry, but no experience in making cheese, Terry Homan launched Red Barn Family Farms with his wife, Paula Homan, in 2008. After all, great cheese is made with great quality milk. And without healthy cows, there is no quality milk.

A Commitment to Small Family Farms

Their business model is unique in that they make very intentional choices about milk sourcing. Only family-owned and family-operated farms in Wisconsin, all of a small scale, are selected.

“Animal husbandry [is] the primary ethic upon which we believe our dairy farms should operate,” says Terry Homan, about their Appleton, Wisconsin, business. “Our motivation to launch and operate Red Barn Family Farms is to help preserve it as a business model into the future.” The creamery works with seven small, family-owned dairy farms in Wisconsin—all committed to animal welfare and producing the highest quality of milk.

The couple’s other goal is ensuring dairy farmers are paid a fair wage for their cows’ milk, used to craft artisan cheese under the Red Barn Family Farms’ label. By partnering with Door Artisan Cheese Company in Egg Harbor, Wisconsin, as well as other Wisconsin creameries, the Homans can focus on what they do best: animal husbandry and working with farm partners.

Simple But High Quality Cheeses

Red Barn Family Farms Cupola Artisan Cheese. Photo Credit Wisconsin Cheese

“We focus on very simple cheese recipes, without extra flavor or ingredient add-ins, so that we can really highlight the quality and natural goodness of our carefully sourced milk,” says Paula Homan. “For example, when creating our original recipe Cupola cheese, our focus was not on finding the perfect herb or pepper, or fruit to make the cheese unique, but rather on finding the right culture cocktail that would make our milk the star of the show.”

its Vintage Cupola Artisan Cheese—a semi-hard cheese that’s a blend of gouda and parmesan aged for three years is an award-winner. Red Barn Family Farms also produces two other Cupolas, each aged for less than three years and in 2019 its young Cupola was also an award-winner.

Appropriately named for Red Barn Family Farms’ origins, a cupola is at the top of traditional Wisconsin barns. The Homans worked with the Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to create the cheese recipe. It’s handcrafted in small batches.

“Cupola’s unique texture is firm but supple … fruity and nutty with notes of caramel and toasted pineapple,” says Paula Homan. “Made in nine-pound wheels with raw milk and aged for a minimum of nine months … Cupola combines top-quality Red Barn milk and a recipe that took four years to perfect. An original recipe variety takes a bit more effort to market, but once people taste Cupola they are hooked.”

In addition to Cupola, Red Barn Family Farms’ line of cheeses include Heritage White Cheddar (aged from one to five years), two New Zealand-style cheddars (Edun Raw Milk Cheese and Vintage Willow Creek Cheese), Monterey Jack, Colby Jack and Weis Cheddar (cloth-bound and wax-dipped, and aged between one and three years).

Support for Ethical & Humane Dairy Farming

Red Barn farmer, Tim Busch, and his beautiful herd of Ayrshires Photo Credit Red Barn Family Farms)

Good cheese is, of course, worth the wait and there’s no better example than the four years it took to roll out Cupola. But it’s also because the Homans didn’t just work with any dairy farmers. They sought out those that are family-owned and family-operated—a requirement—and share their commitment to animal husbandry.

“Our milk-sourcing decisions are determined by our mission, which is to advocate for ethical and humane dairy farming,” says Paula Homan. “They must follow ‘The Red Barn Rules’ to ensure not only the cleanliness and quality of the milk but also the health and welfare of the cows. All farms are certified by the American Humane Association. Our farmers milk an average of just 55 cows that are known individually by name and personality and receive very personalized care.” At these farms, the cows are pasture-raised, spending time outside daily. (Weather permitting, of course, as Wisconsin winters can be chilly.)

How Fair Prices Ensure a Rosy Future

“Without our fair-trade pay model, our Wisconsin farms would receive commodity prices for their milk,” explains Paula Homan. “They wouldn’t have a say in what they earn for their milk. Drastic price fluctuations in the commodity market can be very challenging to weather for farms. Commodity-milk prices have not kept pace with ever-rising operating expenses. In a commodity environment, a farm is most likely to survive if it expands or consolidates. Our fair-trade pay scale is not tied to the commodity market and is intended to help our farms remain viable business models. Our fair-trade model incentivizes excellence, because our farms can earn more for their milk by meeting or exceeding high standards for milk cleanliness/quality as well as animal health and welfare.”

With the median age of a Wisconsin dairy farmer clocking in at a minimum of 55 years old, according to the Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin their retirement is not that far away. Once they do retire, who will take over the farm if a family member is not interested or available? The Homans are invested in educating the next generation of farmers as a fool-proof way to keep the momentum going. They’ve committed to a goal over the next two years of focusing on the youngest generations of Red Barn Family Farms’ partner farmers.

“We have a current Red Barn farmer looking to retire and hoping to transition the farm to a young couple looking to begin farming,” says Terry Homan. “One of our farmers is a recent college graduate and first-generation farmer (Olivia Hennes) working on getting her farm infrastructure established to be Red Barn-style for her entire career. Our focus is to support this next generation of farmers who rely on animal husbandry as the primary foundation of their livestock care.”