Say Cheese!
BY WIB MIDDLETON
“ bluffs” its robustness to discourage predators. Okay, it was time for
C onversationally, it was discovery. in the wind recently...
Arriving on the newly established Bluffing Goat Farm, Mikey
“ There’ s this guy, he’ s a professional poker player who Stotz co-owner with his veterinarian wife, Dr. Christina Stotz and bought the dairy farm and 200 acres on Sugarland Road in
Aren Johnson of Potomac Hollow Farm, had just milked the last
Poolesville... and he’ s making goat cheese!” group of 65 goats. Two times a
The operation is called Bluffing day the 100 or so does— female Goat Farm. Bluffing? Like in poker goats— line up to be positioned playing? And bluffing, supposedly in the new 24-stall milking parlor. a form of dominant goat behavior when a weak or injured goat feed automatically comes
Their carefully managed pellet down in separate bowls, enticing the hungry ruminants.“ In eight and a half minutes they’ re in and out,” says Mikey.“ While they’ re eating, they’ re distracted, so you can hook them up and milking begins.”
Walking around what was, until recently, a milking parlor for cows on the Beneva Farms in Poolesville, MD, a 70-year dairy and grain farm owned by the Weitzer family, there are goats everywhere. Dozens of them, Toggenburgs, Saanens, Alpines and La Manchas, all breeds for optimal cheese producing. They cohabitate in large roof covered pens with more than ample room. Long swing gates open up to abundant rolling
44 plenty I summer growing 2025