Today we’d like to introduce you to Craig Miller.
Hi Craig, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Craig Miller, CEO of Mill-King Market and Creamery is a third generation dairy farmer, born and raised in McGregor, Texas outside of Waco. The youngest of three children, Craig remembers dairying as a way of life from his earliest memories. Growing up on the family farm he was told stories of his grandparents first selling cream & milk in the local store for 5 cents a gallon and then transitioning to selling to a large cooperative in order to hopefully help dairymen obtain a better price for their commodity. His father took over the farm in the 1980’s and in the early 1990’s built a state of the art dairy barn that brought visitors and vendors from as far away as Russia and China. Craig worked on the family dairy farm, which at the time operated as a traditional commercial dairy selling its milk to a cooperative that would then sell it’s milk to a processor. His family took great pride in building their herd up of hand picked Holsteins, Brown Swiss and Jersey cows to make a well superior commercial milk product.
After high school, Craig went off to college to pursue a career in anything, but agriculture. However, his roots took him back to what he knew best. So he and his wife, Rhianna, returned to the farm in late 2004 after completing their degrees at Tarleton State University. Craig returned to the family farm to work in order to continue his education in animal genetics as he built up his own animal genetic business. In 2008, Rhianna began working on the family dairy farm and with Craig in his genetic business. For several years, Craig and Rhianna operated a business independent of the dairy; however, it was still based around cattle. With this business, they were able to travel all over the United States learning about the cattle and dairy industry.
When the economy devastated the dairy industry in 2010, it was apparent that continuing to dairy in a conventional manner was not a viable option for the family farm. The family started to explore alternative dairy marketing options. Spurred by Rhianna’s allergy to milk and a suggestion from a friend, the family looked into making cheese and selling their own raw milk. Also during the family’s research, they found a need for low temperature pasteurized and non-homogenized dairy products. Research found that this type of batch pasteurization was legal for transport off the farm for sales to retailers, restaurants, and end consumers. They learned that many people who have intolerances or side effects from drinking “conventional grocery store milk” (high or super high pasteurized milk) can actually drink this batch pasteurized milk since it is free from additives, preservatives or chemicals. In addition, many of the nutrients in the low temp, non-homogenized milk stay intact compared to conventional grocery store milk.
The need for low temp pasteurized milk began to change the family farm. In early 2012, the new structure of the business as Mill-King Market and Creamery was born. The family began traveling every weekend to farmers markets in the Austin area in order to market their new milk, all the while still running a commercial dairy farm. The family’s goal was to convert all of their fluid milk sales to end user sales rather than selling in bulk to a cooperative. From this time on, all of their practices changed to promote unadulterated dairy products. They’re very strict on what our cows eat, how they are treated, and how the milk is handled in the processing facility. We are passionate about our cows and getting their natural, wholesome milk to consumers.
Getting into the Austin food scene, hustling and the grace of God led the family to retail store shelves, especially the shelves of Whole Foods Market in Austin, by the end of 2012. As the business began to grow, the family was able to stop selling their milk to a cooperative and processing it all theirselves in the next 12 months. Over the last 10 years the family has grown to be known as the go to milk in the state for speciality coffee shops, farm to table restaurants and consumers looking for the most natural milk on the market-all from their little farm in McGregor, Texas.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Transitioning from a commercial dairy to marketing, processing and delivering our own products is and has constantly been fraught with challenges. We’ve faced challenges from being turned into the state constantly by the large cooperatives and processors when we first began, to finding vendors that would work on our equipment, to navigating the rules and regulations governing dairy processing to creating and maintaining delivery routes. Every day brings a new challenge that spurs us to learn, grow and persevere in order to get our milk to consumers. It has not been an easy road, but it is very rewarding to bring a clean, underrated product back to consumers-especially consumers that have been unable to enjoy milk previously.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We are very different from your average dairy farm. We are farmstead creamery. We make low temperature pasteurized, non-homogenized milk, cream, and cheese on the dairy farm. We are non-GMO certified and grass-feed our animals. We currently offer fluid milk, cream and butter. We offer whole, 1%, 2% and a special coffee shop Barista Blend as well as a chocolate milk like none other in the state. Our CaCow milk is made with our 1% milk and a speciality blended chocolate syrup made with raw organic agave nectar and raw organic cacao powder. We offer unadulterated half and half and heavy whipping cream, the only ones on the market that do not contain carrageenan or other thickeners or stabilizers. We make farmstead butter, and have been building a new cheese facility over the last two years.
There are artisan food producers that make products across Texas using Mill-King milk. Everything from artisan ice cream, caramels, fudge, yogurt and cheese showcase our milk. We also have a small retail farm store located on the dairy that specializes in clean, farm fresh foods. In addition to our milk, cream and butter, we have everything from our own grass-fed beef, fresh organic produce, simple ingredient foods and harsh chemical free body products.
Mill-King has its footprint all over the state of Texas stretching out past Abilene, down to the Rio Grande Valley, up from the Galveston coast through Houston and on up to the East Texas and the Red River border. At one time we actually delivered every gallon of milk we made; however, as we have grown that is one area that we have had to outsource. We now deliver our dairy products through a 2 fold method of direct deliveries via our own trucks and through large food distributors like Farm to Table or Ben E Keith. Through these two avenues Mill-King milk goes to healthy retail grocery stores like Whole Foods Market and Natural Grocers, small local farmer market stores, and home delivery grocery services. Restaurants across the state specializing in farm to table or high end ingredients use Mill-King in their kitchens. Mill-King is known in the Texas specialty coffee scene as the only milk to use if you want to compete, and artisan ice cream makers like Waco’s Heritage Creamery or Parlor’s Ice Cream exclusively use Mill-King milk and cream to make their ice cream confections.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
Our entire business transition and business has been a risk. We are fighting against a standardized system of large dairies and large processors all selling a product that has been highly adulterated despite what the label may say to a public that has not been told the truth or is content with such a food product. Attempting to sell a product that is so well known like milk, but completely different like our low temperature pastueurzied, non-homogenized milk is a huge risk. So, we approach everything with calculation. Research, pray and grit are how we have made it work. We wouldn’t be where we are today without laying all on the line; however, we try to always approach the risk with the most information that we can in order to mitigate this risk and increase the payoff.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mill-king.com/
- Instagram: @millkingmilk
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MillKingMarketCreamery
