A Change in Plans

A farmer’s work is hard, and the business of farming can be even harder. Every year, plenty of farmers give it up; it’s certain that plenty more think about it.

Take the case of one Missouri dairyman. On the verge of selling out, he remembered the good old days – the days of small-town quality and personal service.

With that memory, he re-invented his dairy – changed his way of life – and revitalized his business.

Not too many years ago, Leroy And Barbara Shatto of Osborn, Missouri were seriously thinking about selling the dairy herd that had been in Barbara’s family for 100 years.

"It used to be, every day I walked across the road, I wondered, 'why are you doing this? working yourself to death for nothing,'" Leroy remembers.

Milk prices were declining, while the overhead to produce it was increasing. Shatto considered shutting down—not easy for a man who’s milked cows twice a day for 30 years. But after some research, he came up with a way to turn his failing farm into a dream business.

"Well, what the studies show, there’s a lot of people wanting farm-fresh milk from the farm that they can even go out and see where this milk comes from," Leroy says. So in 2003, Shatto stopped selling his milk to a co-op. He opened a plant to process it himself, cutting out the middleman. He took his idea a step further by creating a niche —packaging the milk the old-fashioned way, in glass bottles.

"I think everything tastes better in glass," Leroy says. "I mean, even water tastes better in glass, so it makes our milk taste better. The glass makes our milk stay colder."

Shatto now sells his milk to more than 50 grocery stores in the Kansas City area and northern Missouri. John Jackson, Dairy Manager at a nearby Hy-Vee market, says the product has really caught on.

"Milk used to be delivered to (customers) doors in wire hangers in the glass jars, and that’s the only way people got it," Jackson recalls. "That might have been part of their initial attraction to it was, hey, it was just like a blast to the past."

Shatto milk not only comes in whole and low-fat white…but chocolate and even more unusual flavors like root beer.

Leroy smiles, "I wouldn’t mind being known as the dairy farmer who made milk fun, 'cause we’re got people drinking milk that never would have before."

Fun Facts:
Shatto Dairy offers free tours, where kids and grownups can watch milking, sample the products, and shop for souvenirs. For more information, contact Shatto Milk, 816-930-3862, or go to www.shattomilkcompany.com