July 2, 2009 - There is little in the background of either Red or Debbie Ferrell to suggest that either one of them would end up with a small goat dairy.
Red Ferrell grew up in Sulphur Springs working on a large dairy farm where cows were the stars of the show. He migrated to another hotbed of dairy production, Dublin in Comanche County, where he and Debbie more or less fell into goat production.
Debbie was a city girl who spent much of her childhood in northern climes -- Montana, Minnesota, Iowa. She moved to Greenville with her family as a teenager and graduated from high school there.
"It just kind of happened," Debbie said when asked how they ended up as owners and operators of Maid in the Shade Dairy, which produces a line of artisan goat cheeses. "Red was born and raised in the dairy industry and was deeply involved with FFA. He showed heifers all over the country.
"When our daughter (Tori) was old enough, he got her a goat for FFA. Then we got another goat. Then we started milking them and giving the extra milk to our neighborsIt evolved into this."
The Ferrells were still living in Dublin when they started producing goat cheese full time. They sold it at the Austin Farmer's Market each week, which constituted about seven hours of drive time.
"Finally, the drive got to be too much," she said. "We moved into our place now about two-and-a-half years ago."
The Ferrells, including Tori and their son Cody, live and work now near Rosanky, in Bastrop County, but they hold dear their old friends in Comanche County.
"Those Dutch dairy farmers there around Dublin laughed at us when we started raising goats and making goat cheese," Debbie said. "They were some wonderful people. One thing I have to say that we really miss about Dublin would be the Dutch dairymen."
Debbie learned to make goat cheese by trial and error; she had never even tasted it before she made her first batch. She remembers that first batch as tasting a bit "gamy."
"I made it at first with animal rennet, which gave it that flavor. I asked around and somebody suggested vegetable rennet, and that made all the difference. We've had people tell us that what we make now tastes almost like cream cheese."
The Ferrells have about 50 sheep and goats and milk 22 of them. They produce around 85 to 90 pounds of cheese a week, which sells quickly at the Austin Farmer's Markets and a couple of small retail outlets. Debbie said they would like double that production, but added there is a limit to how big an operation she wants Maid in the Shade to become.
"This is a family operation," she said. "We don't want to get so big that the quality suffers."
"We make our cheese in four-gallon batches," Red explained. "'If we have a batch that doesn't taste quite right or doesn't come up to our standards, we can toss it out and start over without a lot of trouble. The fellow making 400-pound batches might be more inclined to think, 'Well, if I just add a little more garlic'"
"If it's not to our liking, we dump it," Debbie said. "We've had to dump a few batches, but fortunately not too many."
Increased transportation and feeding costs have led the couple to implement different tactics, including the purchase of a custom feed from a mill in Kaminsky.
Business is good, but they are cautious about expanding the operation until costs steady a bit.
They are also concerned about the National Animal Identification System (NAIS), a system proposed by USDA to identify and track farm animals. The program would hit small producers, who can least afford the extra cost, Red said.
"You really don't want to think that they want to put small producers out of business, but that's what would happen if they leave it the way they have it now," he said.
The Ferrells currently produce cheeses in combinations of a dozen or so different flavors and also cheesecakes made with goat cheese; the cakes are primarily custom ordered.
In the end, the Ferrells enjoy what they do, as unlikely as it might be that either one would end up as dairy goat farmers.
"It's fun for us," Red said. "Heck, if it's not at least a little bit of fun, it's not worth doing. This is a lot of work, but it's a lot of fun too."
