Face-to-face marketing of farmgate cheese the key to success for Gingin’s Local Goat dairy

Local Goat Who: Julie and Gerald Drummond Where: Gingin What: Goat dairy products Land size: 60ha When it comes to developing a successful paddock-to-plate product, Gingin dairy goat farmers Julie and Gerald Drummond say consistent high quality is their number one promotional tool. The Drummonds have been selling their goat’s cheese products under the Local Goat brand since January 2018 and recently diversified into gelato production. Their journey to producing a farmgate product began when they moved to their 60ha property west of Gingin in 2007. Julie and Gerald, a trained horticulturalist, had lived in Yanchep before the move, working at the National Park for eight years. With two young children in tow, the couple bought an undeveloped bush block on Coonabidgee Road, where the only existing infrastructure was a 6x12m shed. It was while Gerald was building their strawbale house in 2012 that the Drummonds purchased their first goat, Elvie, a Saanen doe with two kids at foot. The biggest hurdle — and the reason Julie and Gerald suspect there are not more WA goat dairies — has been the paperwork and compliance process. There are mandatory food-safety requirements for all dairy food businesses in WA, which include registering with the Health Department and being involved in a regular auditing process to ensure the dairy meets the department’s Food Standards Code. Gerald said small operators were required to go through the same process as large dairy businesses such as Brownes — a daunting prospect, but one Julie had the tenacity to tackle. Growing production and developing a following has taken years, with the Drummonds carefully matching production with demand. Their packaging and logo development has remained simple to reflect their “farmhouse” style, with Gerald and Julie eager to share their story with customers directly, through attending market stalls in the beginning, and now branching out into farm visits. Hosting farm visits gives the Drummonds instant feedback on the quality of their products. At the 2021 Perth Royal Show Food Awards, Local Goat was awarded silver medals for their natural and chilli feta-style cheeses, as well as their farmhouse offering, while their camembert was awarded a gold medal and crowned champion product. Keeping up with growing demand is now a careful balancing act, with the Drummonds milking a maximum of 20 goats at one time. “We have a total of 45 goats at the moment but only milk up to 20 at any one time,” Julie said. Milk volume varies, with production naturally dropping during winter. The Drummonds only breed their goats every two to three years and allow them to stay with their kids for the first six to eight weeks. “We then gradually bring them back into the milking herd, separating the kids from their mothers overnight (in the milking shed), then milking first thing in the morning, with the kids joining back up with their mothers during the day,” Julie said. She said this ethically motivated and sustainable approach was much easier on the goats and enabled longevity in the milking herd. The business itself was developed to enable the Drummonds to live a sustainable lifestyle that is not production driven; instead, they focus on matching production with the capacity of their land, which includes water and feed resources. Milk production is seasonal, with summer being the busiest time of year when the whole herd can be producing up to 50L of milk a day. During this time the Drummonds make a large amount of their farmhouse cheese, which is aged for a minimum of four months. Original and chilli feta is made all year round as well as camembert, labneh and gelato. Matching production with milk availability ensures a fresh seasonal product, with all milk used the day of milking during summer. Over winter, due to the reduction in milk supply, milk is chilled and used every second day for cheese making. The hours are long, often starting very early in the morning with milking, followed by farm jobs throughout the day as well as cheese making, which can go late into the evening. “It is all day, every day with the cheese-making process including brining, cutting and wrapping into the night,” Julie said. “In summer, we normally start cheese making around 8am and don’t stop until around 10.30pm. “I get a bit of a break on Wednesday, as this is our delivery day.” Fitting in promotional activities is a balancing act, with word of mouth the biggest driver of Local Goat’s success. The Drummonds said face-to-face promotion was the most powerful form of marketing their products. “AmazingCo have been fantastic; we got involved after COVID when they approached us wanting to run a tour in the Chittering Shire,” Julie said. “It has been a great opportunity to showcase other local businesses too; we stock a few other locally made items in our shop such as honey, olive oil and soap. “People coming through the AmazingCo tours of Chittering stop here with us and learn about our dairy. “Gerald talks through what’s involved milking the goats; visitors then get to taste our cheese and gelato.” Gerald said diversifying into gelato had been a big hit, especially for families travelling with children, while the bus tours had created return buyers and exposed Perth-based clients to goat’s milk products. One benefit of goat’s milk is that it is suitable for people who are lactose intolerant. Julie said lactose-intolerant customers she had spoken with were overjoyed to have found a locally produced dairy product they could consume. Gerald said while the potential to expand production to meet demand was there, they wanted to remain sustainable when it came to their own life balance as well as the stocking capacity of their property. Instead, he would like to see more small-scale local dairies producing product. Julie said with only a few WA local goat dairies currently operating, there was plenty of opportunity for more with growing demand from cheesemongers.