HVADC Program: Specialized Business Technical Assistance for Dairy Farmers

On a sheep dairy in the Hudson Valley, a new batch of whole-milk sheep ricotta came together just a little bit better this spring.

The change wasn't dramatic — a few adjustments in temperature and technique made the difference. But for Willow Pond Sheep Farm founder Carrie Wasser and her husband Brent Wasser, the improvement was immediately obvious. Within weeks of a consultation with dairy specialist Fons Smits, they were seeing results with this relatively new product.

Several hours north, at North Country Creamery in the Adirondacks, another conversation with Smits helped owner Ashlee Kleinhammer think bigger — not just about cheese quality, but also about the creamery's future layout and flow as it prepares for a major expansion.

Different farms. Different products. Different challenges. But both businesses benefited from the same HVADC initiative: a specialized business technical assistance program designed to connect dairy producers with highly targeted expertise. The cohort included Willow Pond, North Country Creamery and Berle Farm in Hoosick.

For small farmstead creameries, that kind of support is genuinely hard to find.

"[Fons’] knowledge is just so expansive," Kleinhammer remarked. "And he's so passionate."

Matching Expertise to the Challenge

Smits knows the realities of small-scale dairy production.

A food scientist from the Netherlands, he trained in dairy processing, spent years consulting in California, Africa and Asia, and helped launch artisan creameries in the Midwest before co-founding Tulip Tree Creamery in Indianapolis in 2013. The creamery's cheeses have won national and international awards.

His consulting practice focuses on small and farmstead producers navigating the particular challenges of making artisan products from milk that changes with the seasons. He previously lent his expertise to HVADC’s 2024 Dairy Funding Accelerator Program, which had been made possible through funding from the Northeast Dairy Business Accelerator Program.

"Because I also have my own creamery, I can combine the technical expertise I share with practical experience," Smits noted. "Making cheese by hand from unstandardized milk is very different from making cheese in a large-scale setup."

Smits approached each farm differently. He visited some operations in person and worked remotely with others. The topics varied as well, from production techniques and aging environments to facility planning and workflow.

"Each company typically has very specific issues they'd like me to focus on," he explained. "All are unique because each company is set up in a unique way. Nothing is the same."

For the farms, those conversations with Smits arrived at exactly the right moment.

North Country Creamery: Room to Grow

North Country Creamery has been growing steadily since Kleinhammer and her partner, Steven Googin, launched the woman-owned operation on former dairy farmland in Keeseville, Essex County in 2013. The farm produces yogurt and a range of artisan cheeses from its grass-fed dairy herd, and its products reach schools, hospitals and distributors across New York State.

As the business expanded, Kleinhammer had questions. How can production become more efficient? What investments make the most sense? How can we design the creamery to support the next phase?

Kleinhammer brought all of these questions to Smits. The timing of their connection was ideal. The farm recently secured funding to renovate part of its barn and expand creamery operations.

"I walked [Fons] through [the barn], and we talked about the flow of things now, and what the flow could be,” she said. “We gave him a list — we need more brine space and coolers, this is the amount of space we’re going to have — and he’s going to run some scenarios for us.”

Kleinhammer’s relationship with HVADC runs deep. She had participated in HVADC's Dairy Funding Accelerator Program. HVADC also helped fund ongoing work with business consultant Rose Wilson — supporting enterprise analysis, business valuation, and now a serious look at transitioning to a worker-owner cooperative model.

"HVADC is supporting all this work that we’re doing with [Rose],” Kleinhammer explained.

She credited HVADC not only with the business technical assistance but also with the connections. Smits was someone she never would have found on her own. So was Beatrice Berle of Berle Farm, whom she met through an HVADC-coordinated farm tour for the Dairy Accelerator and now considers a mentor.

"You just can't go wrong," Kleinhammer remarked. "You get connected with professionals and consultants, and you're funded to work with them."

Willow Pond Sheep Farm: Fine-Tuning a Growing Business

Carrie Wasser came to farming by way of a 12-year career as a newspaper reporter, then a stint editing a Vermont magazine about local food. Volunteering on livestock farms along the way, she fell for the work. When she met her husband — who had a background in cheese and baking and dreamed of working with sheep's milk — the direction became clear.

Willow Pond launched in 2018 in Gardiner, Ulster County, on land that Wasser's family had owned for decades but never farmed. Today, it's the only commercial sheep dairy in the Hudson Valley and one of an estimated 75 to 100 in the entire country. The farm produces sheep milk yogurt, ricotta, lamb, wool blankets, sheepskins and candles made from rendered lamb fat.

"We pretty much use everything but the hooves," Wasser said.

As the business grew, she realized the farm's financial systems hadn't kept pace. Through HVADC's Business Technical Assistance Incubator Without Walls program, Wasser worked with consultant Brian Zweig to build Willow Pond's first real cash-flow model.

For the first several years, she admitted, the farm had operated largely on instinct.

"We were always kind of guessing and hoping," Wasser recalled. "We didn't have a good sense of how much money we were taking in at different times of the year." The new model changed that. "I don't have to wake up in the middle of the night wondering if I can pay a certain bill. I can see it coming down the horizon and set aside money for it."

Zweig also flagged a New York State beginning farmer grant that the farm hadn't known about. Willow Pond applied and won, using approximately $20,000 to purchase a larger walk-in cooler. That cooler is now allowing Brent to make two dairy products on one day, including the ricotta (and possibly, one day, feta).

That's where Smits entered the picture. Working over Zoom with Brent, Smits advised on improving the texture and consistency of the farm's whole-milk ricotta. He also talked through brining, aging and packaging protocols for the new feta product, which the expanded cooler now makes possible to produce and store.

Wasser said Smits offered “really excellent guidance on improving the texture and consistency of our ricotta cheese.”

"We have an improved product already,” she added.

She noted that the HVADC connection mattered for reasons beyond any single program. "I doubt we would have met Fons any other way," she said. "There are resources out there for establishing a cash flow, and there are people who work directly with farmers, but they’re not necessarily local. I feel like Brian had a real sense of what's going on in the Hudson Valley.”

Her advice to other producers: don't wait. "It would have been really great if we'd had a cash-flow in place by our second year instead of our fifth," Wasser said. "Don't be reluctant to reach out for assistance, because you want to be as successful as possible, as early as possible. The challenges and frustrations you're feeling are felt by almost every farm around you — even if you don't know it."

The Hardest Part of Cheesemaking

Across both farms — and across most of the creameries Smits works with — one challenge kept coming up: aging.

"Cheese aging is a crucial part in the production process," Smits said. "It creates special conditions so the cheese can ripen in the best possible way – and it allows for many things to go wrong."

That's why follow-up matters.

"Many creameries benefit from repeat consultations," Smits said. "A problem is not always solved with one simple solution."

HVADC designed the program with that in mind. Rather than funding a single consultation, the organization can help farms access expertise over time as new challenges emerge.

“Partnering with Fon’s again felt inevitable,” said HVADC Business Services Coordinator Duane Stanton. “In response to his work on a previous Dairy program, HVADC was flooded with rave reviews and requests to work with him again. I’m honored to assist in cultivating these relationships and continue to build New York State’s creameries.”

Smits plans to return for a future in-person visit with Willow Pond, and both farms expect the work with him to continue.

"What always fascinates me is the passion and drive I find," he said. "When you can help these companies, the assistance goes further than just some advice. A creamery means a lot more than a business to those running it."

For more information about HVADC's Business Technical Assistance programs for farms and agricultural businesses, visit https://www.hvadc.org/business-technical-assistance.