Dairy goats eat in their stalls Monday at LaClare Farms in Pipe. The farm milks about 375 goats and uses that milk to make cheese. The family farm also sells the milk through a cooperative to other cheesemakers. Credit: Mark Hoffman

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On the east side of Lake Winnebago, in a small community named Pipe, a dairy goat farm has gained national attention for its cheese and side businesses that, collectively, are expected to top $1 million in sales this year.

LaClare Family Farm started with two milking goats, two peacocks, and a flock of laying hens. Larry and Clara Hedrich, of Chilton, raised dairy goats as a hobby until their interest morphed into a business and tourist attraction that now employs 22 people including six members of the Hedrich family.

The farm endured the recession and the drought of 2012 that forced some Wisconsin goat operations out of business. Now it ships cheese all over the country, and its products are sold at Milwaukee-area stores including Wisconsin Cheese Mart and Clock Shadow Creamery.

The farm raises crops to feed the herd of about 375 dairy goats. The goats produce the milk that's made into cheese on the farm, and some of the products are sold in the farm's retail store that also sells craft beers, wines, ice cream and other locally-produced foods.

If this were an ordinary goat farm of this size, it couldn't employ 22 people, said Greg Hedrich, the farm's business manager and a former high school teacher with a master's degree in education leadership and policy analysis.

By making cheese, selling bottled milk, and operating a retail store, cafe and banquet facility, LaClare Family Farm captures more of the consumer's dollar.

"It's also how we have been able to keep everybody involved with the farm," Hedrich said about working with his parents and siblings.

Wisconsin is the nation's top dairy goat state, producing about $10 million in milk a year that mostly goes into trendy goat cheeses. The state had more than 44,000 dairy goats in 2012, according to state records, although the drought that summer slowed the dairy goat boom and forced many farmers to cull their herds.

Some goat farms were forced out of business because it cost more to feed the animals than the farm could earn from producing milk. New farms, still absorbing start-up costs, had little wiggle room to pay their bills.

Still, more than a dozen Wisconsin cheesemakers specialize in goat cheese, and at least another half dozen make the cheeses on farms where the animals are raised.

Goat cheese has a unique flavor, and consumers with a dairy intolerance may tolerate goat's milk.

There's strong demand for the cheese, Hedrich said, and the prices that farmers receive for their goat's milk and cheese don't fluctuate as much as prices for cow's milk.

A LaClare Family Farm cheese called Evalon placed second in its class at the U.S. Cheese Championship in Green Bay in 2009, a year after the farm started making cheese.

Now, the farm offers a variety of cheeses including Evalon, Fresh Chevre, Cheddar, Raw Cheddar, Fondy Jack and American Originals crafted by Katie Hedrich, the U.S. Championship Cheesemaker in 2011.

The farm's bottled goat's milk is sold at various stores throughout Wisconsin and parts of Illinois.

The farm has some online sales, and its on-site retail store, cafe and banquet facility are fast-growing parts of the business.

Visitors can watch the goats being milked, 48 at a time, and cheeses being aged.

The farm also caters to business meetings, bridal showers and holiday parties. And there are on-farm dinners, $45 per person or $80 per couple, that are four-course meals prepared by the farm's chef.

All of this would probably be way too much for farmers who want to raise livestock, produce milk for the wholesale market, and not deal with the general public. That's not the case, though, for LaClare.

"Our philosophy is that people can come here for five minutes or five hours. There are some people who come here, have a cup of coffee, and work on their computer all day. We want to be open to everyone," Hedrich said.