Got (local) milk?

By NATE HUBBARD/Staff

Rural Retreat is known as the home of the famous Dr Pepper soft drink, but a new business in town is trying to carve out its own niche with a healthier form of liquid refreshment.
Boyer Milk Co. opened its doors at 439 Gienow Road behind Rural Retreat’s Food Country USA in early July.
The family-run business is owned by matriarch Debra Boyer who has been operating a dairy farm in Crockett for 40 years.
All of the milk sold at the store is farm fresh – locally produced and packaged on the same day.
“It’s just straight milk,” Boyer said. “A lot of people have said they’ve waited and waited for us to open, they’re anxious to get it. A farm fresh product of this kind is hard to find.”
The Boyers’ 100 Holstein cows are milked twice a day on the family’s farm in Crockett. The unprocessed milk is then immediately transported the short distance to the Rural Retreat store where it is pasteurized and bottled in a room behind the main storefront.
Boyer said the company’s goal is to produce 5,000 gallons a week.
The business sells whole, 2 percent and chocolate varieties.
After years of losing potential profits to middlemen, Boyer said she finally decided that she wanted to be both a producer and seller.
“The farmer gets the short end of the stick,” she said.
Both producing and selling, though, means plenty of hard work.
“You have to like farming, you have to like cows, you have to like the process,” Boyer said. “Milking cows is a 24-hour-a-day job.”
Boyer said her daughter, Jessica, does most of the actual milking. Boyer’s sons, Justin, Jon and Mark, also help out with the operation and she credited Rural Retreat resident Randy Hayes with helping to get all the electrical wires and equipment installed at the store.
In addition to selling directly from the Rural Retreat store, Boyer milk also is available at King’s Country Produce in Wytheville.
King’s owner Roger King said he knows firsthand how hard it is to be both a producer and distributor – and decided that it was too much for him.
He said, though, that the Boyer family has the drive to make it work.
“If anybody can do it, they can,” King said. “I admire [Boyer] for taking that challenge.”
Boyer admitted that meeting the numerous state regulations to get the business started was a strenuous process and she added that filling out paperwork continues to keep her busy.
Hard work, though, comes naturally to a dairy farmer.
“The work part we already knew about,” Boyer said.
King said the tomato salmonella scare earlier this summer has made customers eager to buy locally produced products.
Boyer milk, he said, is starting to become a popular item.
“Everybody seems to be pretty positive about it and they do like the fact that it is local,” King said.
Back in 1980, Boyer said there were 150 dairy farms in Wythe County. Now only 15 remain and Boyer said she’s the only person in the county trying to sell directly to consumers.
As supply costs and land values have gone up over the years, Boyer said farming has become a tough business.
“People are just finding a better way to make a living,” she said.
But with the milk venture going well so far, Boyer said she even hopes to be able to expand into cheese production in the near future.
For now, though, Boyer said she’s convinced that people will realize what they’ve been missing out on once they try a sip of fresh-as-can-be milk.
“You really just have to taste it,” she said.
Boyer Milk’s Rural Retreat store is open Monday-Saturday. Call (276) 686-MILK for more information.
Nate Hubbard can be reached at 228-6611 or .