If finding a need and filling it is a prescription for business success, venture capitalists should be investing in dairy sheep. They aren't, but fortunately, a few other risk takers are building flocks to meet a growing appetite in this country for sheep's milk yogurt and sheep's milk cheese.
In fact, New York's Old Chatham Sheepherding Co., probably the first significant dairy-sheep venture in the United States, chose to discontinue production of its sheep cheeses in 2007 to meet the booming business for its sheep's milk yogurt. Since then, the company helped some neighboring Amish farmers build flocks and is now purchasing sheep's milk from them. With a more stable milk supply, Old Chatham's proprietors felt comfortable getting back into the business of producing pure sheep's milk cheese.
Last year, Old Chatham debuted Kinderhook Creek, a 14-ounce bloomy-rind sheep's milk wheel, and the cheese is now making its way west. Veteran cheese enthusiasts will recognize it as essentially a smaller version of Shepherd's Wheel, one of the sheep cheeses that Old Chatham discontinued five years ago.
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