By Anna Mahorski 

Nestled away on seven acres off Niwot Road is the very busy Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy. Owned by Jim Schott for the last eight years, the dairy supplies goat cheese to most of the Front Range.

Making and packing cheese is quite a process, and it’s all done on the farm.   “We do everything here,” said Jim. “Milk, pasteurize, make the cheese and package it.  Our distributors range from northern New Mexico in the south [to] Wyoming in the north.  We cater to stores who care about high quality and health care products.   We sell locally, of course, to Steele’s in Niwot and Ft. Collins, all the health food stores here too, and in the mountains, Clark’s Market, and Fifty restaurants around the area, also.”
 
Growth… A Process 

A  few  years ago, the dairy experienced a small crisis. “Our market was growing faster than we could produce,” states Jim.  “We had to scout around and find additions to the herd.  We had to go as far away as Virginia to get 25 goats that we were pleased with [their] health record, etc.” 

Over the past two to three years, Jim has been working on a partnership with a family near Fossberg, Colo. to develop another goat herd.  Currently, there are 120 goats at Haystack, a maximum for the seven acres. 

At the moment, the dairy does not produce milk because the state requires automatic bottling equipment.  The milk must be bottled and then capped without being touched by human hands.  Jim is negotiating to work with a small dairy that processes its own milk.  Hopefully by next year, we’ll be seeing Haystack’s milk and drinkable yogurt in our stores. 

Jim’s goats are almost totally fed organic products.  “It’s difficult finding organic grains for our needs, as we’re too small a business.  But our goats are not ‘shot up’ with steroids to produce more milk,” affirms Jim.  The business is large enough to employ a full time herd manager, a cheese manager, and four part time workers.
 
Varied Cheeses, A Taste Pleasure

 Jim makes a delicious variety of cheeses: 

•  Chevré cheese, modeled after the French Chevré, is a semi-soft cheese, a little on the dry side, for crumbling on salad and such.  It comes in different flavors. 
• Spreadable Chevré which also comes in varied flavors.
• Grated Chevré was created by accident. It’s a hard, aged,  dried and gratable, like a Parmesan cheese. 

Every year, around 200 baby goats or kids are born.  Jim can only keep 20 to 25 as replacement goats. The rest are sold for a variety of purposes. 

In particular, young males are sold for meat. “A lot of different populations  eat it.  In the world it’s said there is more goat’s meat eaten than beef.  Not surprisingly, goats tend to be more hardy than cattle,” Jim said.   An attempt to start a processing plant in central Colorado for exotic meats, such as goat, ostrich, and such, is currently underway.

Jim Schott, a soft spoken man, has big plans for his prodigious and bustling business.

 Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy is at 5239 Niwot Road, Niwot, CO. 80503, 303-581-9948.