If you are interested in becoming an organic operation, good records are essential, says Kristen Adams, certification service director at MOSA (Midwest Organic Services Association) Certified Organic. MOSA is one of the agencies that certify operations as organic. She says her recommendations will help producers in their transition to organic no matter what certifying agency they use.

Thanks to tight margins on commodities like milk, corn and soybeans, producers are searching for returns wherever they can find them. For some, that means exploring value-added opportunities outside their core operations.

If you want to start a grass-based business, the most important question is how to make the wisest use of all the financial resources at your disposal.

Yogurt-making comes natural to the van der Ploegs, who own Mid Frisian Dairy located in Clovis, New Mexico. The dairy is home to 2,000 milk cows with a small yogurt plant on the side.

“What is unique about you and your farm that you can build into your brand?” asked Tera Johnson, director of the Food Finance Institute (FFI) and founder of teraswhey, in her keynote presentation at the Resilient Farms Conference, held earlier this year in Wisconsin Dells.

“An LLC, corporation or cooperative is a good thing,” said Rachel Armstrong, founder and executive director of Farm Commons, which offers legal education and support to farmers, seeking to encourage them and implement best legal practices.

Whenever I talk to anybody about drinking whey, they look at me like I’m crazy,” says Sam Alcaine, assistant professor of dairy fermentation at Cornell University.