Managing for Profit

Missouri dairy family finds success through cheese making

A dairy farmer in central Missouri says his family has used vertical integration and value-added processing to reduce exposure to volatile commodity milk markets, support multiple family members on the farm and create a more stable income stream despite rising production costs.

Michael Hemme with Hemme Dairy and Hemme Brothers Creamery says “There was more risk in doing what we did, but there was more reward if we could figure out how to make it work.”