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28 WC DAIRY NEWS  CHRISTMAS 2024
Salmo sheep and goat dairy create on-farm ecosystem
The micro-dairy strives for holistic sustainability
Kate Ayers
Over the last decade, Amanda and Ewan
Forrest of Salmo, BC’s Forrest Farm
Sheep and Goat Cheese Creamery,
have worked to create a synergistic
farm and business. Each aspect of the
farm, including sheep, goats, pigs and
vegetables, is interconnected to improve
soil quality, reduce waste and support the
local economy.
In 2014, the Forrests bought an 8-acre
property in Salmo and embarked on the
journey of becoming first-generation
farmers. The business idea blossomed
from a love of sheep and the small-scale
necessity of value-added products. “With
the sheep we can do not just cheese, we
can also raise lambs and then we can
also use their wool as a product,” Amanda
Forrest says.
They started with two goats, two sheep
and two pigs and then gradually grew
the farm. Today, they have 20 sheep and
12 goats that they breed and milk, but
the Forrests endured five long years of
courses, licencing and inspections to
open the 56th provincially licenced dairy
plant in BC and become the province’s
only licensed sheep milk processor in
June 2023.
Most of the infrastructure required for
large-scale dairies is not affordable or
feasible for smaller operations, so small-
scale processors must develop their
own workarounds to meet BC Centre for
Disease Control requirements. And each
farm needs a plethora of licences.
Indeed, the couple have water, dairy,
processing and milk bulk tank grader
licences. The latter was required to
transport the milk from the barn to the
house. With the milking parlour and
milkhouse located about 100 feet from the
processing facility in their house, Ewan
requires a transporter license to trolley
the milk cans this distance.
The couple offer various cheeses at their
farmstand and in a bi-weekly cheese
subscription service, including Rosebud,
Plateau and Brebis made with sheep milk,
Dark Woods, Chevre and Feta made with
the goat milk, and Two Hearts, which is
a brie-style cheese made with a mixture
of sheep and goat milk.
However, the couple do not milk 12
months of the year. Milk production is
seasonal as the nannies and ewes take a
break during the winter months. “Lambing
and kidding will start in February and
then they have their lambs and kids with
them for two months, and then we start
Ewan skillfully handles the milking in his innovative custom-built
parlour, with a very hygienic adjoining milkhouse.
so many animals that we’re raising them
in barns and then we’re creating too much
compost and waste that we don’t have
the ability to use within our own farm.”
However, the Forrests have found that
in a small town at a small scale, business
sustainability is a challenge as they
work to expand their markets without
increasing their environmental footprint.
“We work all day, every day and 365 days
a year,” Amanda says. “What we’re finding
is that no matter how hard you try and
no matter what price point you put, it’s
[tough]. We want to make a sustainable
farm, but we want it to be not just
sustainable in the environmental sense,
but also physically, mentally, financially
and that’s the hardest part of this; it’s
not really sustainable in that regard, but
hopefully we’ll get there.”
In addition, they are raising awareness
amongst consumers about regenerative
agriculture as well as meat and fibre
production. These conversations can be
draining, Amanda admits.
But even on the hard days, the Forrests
are proud of all they have accomplished
to get to this point. “It’s not just one thing,
it’s how it all works together.”
The dairy
processing
facility
located in
their house is
pristine and
impressive.
to wean them off and then that’s when
we’ll start milking. So milking is usually
from May to November,” Amanda says.
“It takes a little while to wean the goats
off [milking], but the sheep will just sort
of naturally stop. They run out of milk as
the daylight hours get shorter.”
When milking commences in the spring,
the couple buy weaner pigs to reduce
farm waste. “We feed them the whey
from the cheese making process. We also
will feed them spent grain from our local
brewery here and a brewery in Rossland,”
Amanda says. “And they kind of mitigate
all the extra garden waste.”
They continuously strive for an
interconnected farm ecosystem that
improves efficiency and promotes
good land stewardship. “We’re trying to
maximize our space but not overload it,”
Amanda says. “We want to make sure that
we have the right amount of animals for
production, but also we don’t want to have
Amanda shows
off the very
professionally
presented
cheeses in their
road-side shop
which offers
meats, soaps,
fibres and more
from their multi-
faceted farm.
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Thank you for your Thank you for your
business this past year, business this past year,
from all of us at J&D. from all of us at J&D.