Excess colostrum provides dairy producers with extra income

SEYMOUR – Because of the current low milk prices, dairy producers are looking for new income sources, and if they have something of value, they want a place to sell it.

Many of them are teaming up with Seymour Colostrum, a three-year-old company owned and operated by Alane Hue and Joe Paltzer. 

“We work with a company in Canada, Saskatoon Colostrum Company ltd, (SCCL) in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, that has been doing this for well over 20 years,” said Hue. “They wanted to open a territory here in northeastern Wisconsin and we decided to join them.”

SCCL has been providing all natural bovine colostrum products to customers worldwide since 1994. Scientists at SCCL have developed methods of accurately measuring some of the key immunological, metabolic, and nutritional components found in colostrum.

A new instant mix technology in their colostrum products allows for easy and complete mixing in seconds. All colostrum is tested for potency, purity, safety and efficacy to guarantee an end product that meets the highest quality control specifications for global distribution.

SCCL has a sister company, Alta Genetics that is based in Watertown, Wisconsin. “A friend of mine works for Alta, and she told me they wanted to open a territory here in northeastern Wisconsin so Joe and I met with them, learned more details and decided to give it a try,” she said.

Working with the farms

“We work with farms of all sizes,” said Hue. “First, we locate farms that have extra colostrum and are willing to sell it. We set them up with pails for the colostrum and a freezer to store the pails filled with colostrum.”

Farmers store the pail of colostrum in the freezer until it gets full, or until someone from Seymour Colostrum is in the area. “We weigh the colostrum right on the farm, and they farmers receive payment from SCCL,” said Hue. 

“Farmers get a high premium for the colostrum, and every farm receives the same pay scale, regardless of size.”

Hue says the response from Wisconsin farmers has been very good. “We have a lot of farmers who weren’t selling their extra colostrum before, and some who were selling to other companies have switched to us.”

They began by concentrating on dairy farmers within a three-hour drive from Appleton, according to Hue. “But now we have farms outside that area – west to Colby and Dorchester, and south of Madison,” she said.

Steady growth has seen the number of their dairy producers top 240. “We have farms that are milking as few a 30 cows, and ones that are milking thousands of cows. From the feedback we’ve received, our customers are very happy. Many of our farmers are surprised at how quickly they fill their freezer with colostrum,” she said. 

Colostrum processing

“When we get the colostrum back to our location in Seymour, we store it on pallets in a freezer trailer, and when we have a full semi, the colostrum gets shipped to Saskatoon where it’s processed,” Hue explained.

At the Canadian plant, the colostrum is pasteurized and dried to a powder. “The powder then gets shipped to Watertown, where Alta distributes it to other companies which then sell it to farmers as a colostrum replacer for calves,” said Hue.

According to Hue, Seymour Colostrum is currently expanding. “We have the ability to take on more colostrum,” she said. “Farmers who have extra colostrum they’d like to sell, can call us at 920-851-1504 or 920-851-0587. 

More information also is available on their Facebook page at facebook.com/Seymour Colostrum and at www.sccl.com.

“We’ll be happy to give interested farmers more information and answer any questions. And we can quickly set them up with a freezer so they can start earning money from their excess colostrum,” added Hue.