Summerhill Goat Dairy - Hanford, CA
From Goat to Glass
Family owned and operated – for Johnnie and Anneke de Jong, owners of Summerhill Goat Dairy, this saying truly is a way of life. From sunup to sundown, you can find the de Jongs on the farm tending to their dairy goats, managing their milk processing facility, or answering phone calls of curious customers, even from their personal cell phones. While they’ve grown to understand the ins and outs of the goat industry, much of their success came with a huge learning curve.
Johnnie and Anneke, both children of dairy farmers, were no strangers to agriculture, but owning a goat dairy was “nothing they ever thought they’d be doing.” However, in 1999, the opportunity arose for the de Jongs to purchase a small herd of 200 dairy goats. Their knowledge of the goat industry was limited, but the couple found the rare business venture to be intriguing.
“We went to the library, and read up on raising dairy goats,” Anneke says. “We made a lot of mistakes, had a lot of hiccups, but together we’ve figured it out.”
Much to their surprise, goat milk quickly became popular, especially among direct-to-consumer markets. After ten years, the demand far exceeded the supply they could provide given their facility in Southern California, so in 2009, the couple decided to move to Hanford, California, where they currently reside. This allowed them to “build their dream facility,” with the help of Golden State Farm Credit.
“When it came to start building, that’s when we got in with Golden State Farm Credit to help us out,” Johnnie says. “They loaned us the money, and we were able to pursue our dream and get to the point now where we are milking 3,000 goats and servicing 5,000 different stores.”
Their dream facility includes state-of-the-art barns where all the goats are housed, a rotary milking parlor, and a solar operation consisting of half a megawatt, which supplies enough power to operate the entire farm, essentially taking them off the grid.
What’s unique about Summerhill Goat Dairy is the vertically-integrated process they’ve perfected over the years. From the raising of the goats to the production and bottling of the milk, customers can be confident in the “goat to glass” standard established at the de Jong’s farm.
“Our customers know that whatever goat milk they’re buying is coming from our own herd of goats,” Anneke says. “When I talk about the care we provide for our animals, our farm, and our operation, and when I talk about what we do, it’s literally us doing it.”
Since 2010, Summerhill Goat Dairy has also participated in the Certified Humane program, an independent third-party certification that verifies that the care they show for their animals truly is of the highest quality. As a closed-loop herd focused on good ethics, animal health, and environmental sustainability, the values established at Summerhill Goat Dairy closely align with that of Golden State Farm Credit, making them an valuable customer to invest in.