I ain't kidding when I say I love goat puns.
Now that that's out of the way, let me introduce you to Meg Wittenmyer.
I first met Meg four years ago when I was a farm journalist. As the number of conventional dairy farms with cows continued to plummet, I searched out farmers who were milking other ruminants and doing things differently. Bifrost Farms near Boyceville, Wisconsin came up on my radar, and since it wasn't all too far away I had to go and do a story. Meg was a Louisiana transplant via Colorado milking miniature Nubian goats (layman's terms: the goat breed with floppy ears) using organic and regenerative farming practices. If a goat was born at Bifrost, they died at Bifrost; no one was ever shipped or butchered. In addition, she also made farmstead cheeses, cajeta caramel sauce, and lotion in her microcreamery from her goats' milk - all while running a dog boarding kennel.
Last year, after multiple health issues and surgeries, Meg made the difficult decision to disperse the majority of the herd and put the milk processing equipment up for sale. She kept a nucleus of the herd back, though, to keep making lotion and focus on exclusively breeding miniature Nubian goats. Here are a few excerpts from our afternoon in the pasture!
A major highlight of our session was trying to catch a three-week-old miniature Nubian-LaMancha cross named Angela Davis. Angela Davis may wear a size extra small, but she has an extra large personality! It took two full-grown farmers to try and catch this infant animal that weighed about as much as a gallon of milk, but after lots of running, shuffling, and cornering we did the deed. Totally worth it.
If you want to learn more about Bifrost Farms, are looking to grow your goat herd, want to put the lotion on the skin, or just need more goat pictures in your feed, follow them on Facebook and Instagram!
