Drake Family Farms LLC

Farming Kids

West Jordan, Utah

Situated in the Salt Lake Valley in West Jordan, Utah, about 10 miles from Salt Lake City to the north, Drake Family Farms milks profits from a herd of dairy goats, enduring the rapidly changing landscape of agriculture and land use. A Utah Century Farm owned by Jeanette and Ron Drake, Drake Family Farms specializes in goats milk products, including cheese, raw milk, yogurt and handmade goats milk soaps. The farm also continues breeding their award-winning Nubian, Saanen and Snubian goats -- a business started by their 13-year-old son, Daniel, in 1984 as a 4-H project -- and operates a licensed USDA Grade A commercial dairy on site to process their high quality products.

Once a farmstead with a rural address, the 10 acre Drake Family Farms has been engulfed by sprawling development and remains one of only two dairies in the Salt Lake Valley. "In 1970, West Jordan had a population of 2,000 and was a farming community," shares Jeanette. "By 2000, the population of West Jordan was 81,000, and it's still growing rapidly. Our farm is surrounded by subdivisions on the west and north, apartment buildings on the east, and an elementary school on the south." Most of the new development are homes and businesses. A six lane highway abuts the farm.

But Drake Family Farms used the sprawling development to diversify their farm, offering unique and value-added products to their new customer-neighbors. Started in 1880 by Ron's great grandfather, Drake Family Farms followed the farming conventions of the time, like supplying the Utah Poultry Co-op with eggs in the 1950s. By the time Ron and Jeanette were ready to continue the farming tradition, they were open to trying new things, including following their kids' lead with 4-H projects involving dairy goats.

"We wanted to raise a large family and we wanted our children to have opportunities to learn to work," says Jeanette, with a B.S. in food science and technology from Utah State University. "We decided that living on a farm would be the best environment." She ended up raising eight children with her husband, each one having also graduated from college -- perhaps confirming her intuition. Today, she and Ron are joined on their farm by their son, Richard, who has both a degree in wildlife biology and experience at handling animals.

"We've developed a niche product to market to people who need goats milk, which is in itself, a diversified group," explains Jeanette, noting that they also offer pasteurized goats milk. "We have customers who need goats milk for health reasons, customers who prefer buying raw milk, customers who desire a natural goats milk yogurt, and finally, customers who desire our goats milk yogurt and cheese because they're considered 'gourmet.'"

Their fresh goats milk products are marketed under their Drake Family Farms brand, their soap marketed as Willow Lane Soap Cottage, and their goat herd is registered with the American Dairy Goat Association as Willow Lane Dairy Goats. The farm maintains a "raw-to-retail" license from the Utah State Department of Agriculture, making it legal to sell raw milk if regularly inspected and their customers come to the farm to buy the raw milk.

"Among our biggest sellers, our yogurt has no preservatives, sweeteners, or artificial flavors," explains Jeanette. "As our local population becomes more diverse, people travel abroad, and more ethnic groups move into the area, there is more demand for goats milk cheese, yogurt, and other dairy products."

Continues Jeanette, "For the health conscious customers who are lactose intolerant or allergic to the proteins in cows milk, they buy our top selling goats milk. The goats milk has more short and medium chain fatty acids and smaller fat globules. It's easier for them to digest. There are families with a baby who has not been gaining weight, who is colicky, or has constant ear infections. When the parents give their baby goats milk, all these problems are resolved. We have older people with digestive problems who can tolerate goats milk and do well on it."

Drake Family Farms' products are sold at five farmers' markets located in nearby Salt Lake City, Murray, Logan, Bountiful, and Park City, where the dairy products are kept chilled in coolers. However, it's their small Farm Dairy Store on site where they garner most of their income. The farmers' markets are viewed as opportunities for advertising and exposure to potential new customers.

As a distinct Willow Lane Soap Cottage business owned by Jeanette, Drake Family Farms' goats milk is processed into her popular handmade soaps. "I came up with the idea from the Dairy Goat Journal or United Caprine News, two periodicals for goat breeders," says Jeanette. "I've made over fifty varieties of the soap and some have home-grown herbs in them. Goats milk makes a soap that is very moisturizing and gentle." In 2003, her soap received the Best of Utah award for the best goats milk soap.

Drake Family Farms continues to regularly breed their registered Saanens, Nubians and Snubians. "Our Snubian kids, the Saanen and Nubian mix, make excellent dairy goats because we combine the high milk production of a Saamen and the butterfat of milk from a Nubian goat," explains Jeanette. Sales of breeding quality goats account for about 50 percent of their gross income.

What Drake Family Farms might lack in size, they make up for in quality and a personalized touch, connecting their farm and the unique foods and goats milk products it offers to the residents in the area. Future plans include increasing their wholesale sales by selling more to health food stores and restaurants. "We are not out to compete with Dairy Farmers of America," adds Jeanette with a smile. "Our goats were tools in raising our children, too."