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The Rural Voice, 2006-07, Page 24Building an industry It's been gears of struggle but a goats' milk dairg co-op noW has all its operations under one roof and hopes for a brighter future ahead Story and photos by Keith Roulston So there's an eight ounce glass on the table with four ounces of goat's milk in it. Is it half full? Or half empty? For Bob Reid, the journalist turned dairy goat farmer turned entrepreneur, it all depends on the day you ask. Reid is the interim chair of the board of directors of Mornington Heritage Cheese and Dairy Co-operative Inc., the organization of which he was founding chair six years ago. He can look on the bright side and see how far the co- op has come from the days when his own milk was the only milk the company handled, and he transported it to the processor in a plastic tank on the back of his pick-up truck. Then there was the growth to the point the company was making cheese in facilities rented from other cheese companies and taking fluid milk elsewhere for processing. Today 20,000 to 30,000 litres of milk each week from 15 members of the co-op is being processed into bottled milk and cheese in one plant in Millbank. As well the plant rents space for Monforte Dairy Company to make sheep's milk cheese. But on the other hand, like most undercapitalized start- ups, the company still struggles with cashflow. "We're always just about there," Reid says. "We're always just under a positive cashflow. We're on the verge of doing a lot more business." Still, occupying the former Parmalat plant in Millbank, closed in 1999, has a nice symmetry to it. Angered by the Parmalat closure, residents of the Millbank and Milverton areas had met with dreams of continuing Millbank's long tradition in cheese processing. Reid attended some of those meetings as a reporter and when it became obvious that getting milk quota for a new cows' milk cheese plant would be impossible, he suggested tht y should consider processing goats' milk (he had started a dairy goat 20 THE RURAL VOICE Bob Reid (above) stands in the middle of the cheese - making operation. Left, in the bottled milk part of the Millbank plant, bagging equipment stands ready for the next batch.