Cheese farm for sale?
Make sure you get the best

Before you head out to a cheese farm for sale, this basic checklist should help you match what you want with what the farm offers. And help you get what you want.

What do you want from a cheese farm for sale?

  • farming-lifestyle
  • profit,
  • particular interest in cheese
  • longer-term investment, such as from renting the processing plant out to a cheese maker who has yet to establish their own business facilities.

    • Your answers to the questions above will determine which of the following questions to answer and how.

    Producing specialty cheeses for fun rather than profit

    For example, if you have a particular interest in producing specialty cheeses
    • for your own satisfaction
    • for home consumption by your family and friends
    • to enter in cheese competitions
    • or to keep alive some dying aspects of the craft of cheesemaking,
    then the way you answer the questions will shift considerably to ensure that the supply supports your interest. Demand and possibly regulatory matters may have little interest for you.

    If your interest is a farming lifestyle

    The key questions about the cheese enterprise will determine
    • how enjoyable it is for you
    • how practical and
    • whether you even want to keep the cheese enterprise in production, sell it off or mothball it.

    If you want a long-term investment without making cheese

    Your questions here will relate mainly to whether you can find someone to take on the business and so you may need to go deeper into the profitability questions. If these questions do not produce suitable answers for a potential tenant, your investment will have to focus on some other aspect, such as capital gain over time or perhaps a planned rezoning of the land for a high profitability use, such as for hobby farm or rural residential development.

    If you are looking at a cheese farm for sale but the cheesemaking is not essential, you might also find this useful: Farm for sale

    If you are after profit from cheesemaking

    You will need to make sure that the farm has an adequate supply of milk and suitable facilities to process a profitable quantity. You also need to make sure that there is sufficient demand for your product.

    Is the business big enough and profitable enough for you now and in the future? One of the key problems new business owners face is expanding an enterprise that has significant in-built limitations. So, consider supply and demand.

    Supply

  • Can you expand the on-farm milk production of the cheese farm for sale sufficiently to allow you to expand cheese production? If not, you will have to seek outside sources of suitable milk.
  • There may be insufficient supply of suitable milk in the area. This means you will have to transport milk in. That can be expensive as well as lead to reduced quality.
  • Even worse is where you cannot expand your production because all your potential suppliers are already contracted to other users. This leaves you with
    • the job of encouraging new people to take up milk production, not an easy task. OR
    • having to bring milk in from well outside the area, again at great cost.
  • Is it feasible to have your cheese produced elsewhere? You might take this approach and have the cheeses delivered to the cheese farm for sale alongside the cheese produced on the farm, assuming that you have or will have an on-farm cheese shop.

    Demand

    It is no use producing a specialized product if the market is only interested in bulk factory cheese of that type. For example, in some markets not many people will spend extra to buy a specialized version of what they consider to be "ordinary cheese" such as a basic cheddar. This is because there is already a vast supply at much cheaper prices in the supermarkets. Not everyone is interested in the difference or in paying a premium price for it.

    The cheese processing facilities

    Are they:
    • well-kept
    • sparkling clean
    • well designed
    • suitable for you to use
    • easily expanded?

    if not, this may be a very difficult or even disastrous enterprise

    Don't forget the legal aspects

    This may be last, however it is by no means the least important item. Do you have all the necessary legalities covered so that you can continue to produce profitably? You might need:
    • licenses
    • permits
    • qualifications
    • inspections
    • and more, particularly given that dairy food is such a good food - for humans and bugs.

    If not, when the time comes for you to sell, it will not be a cheese farm for sale, but a farm for sale with an old cheese facility.

    So, as you hunt for the perfect cheese farm for sale, keep your main aims in mind. Good luck as you comb the farm for sale ads listings. May your cheese farm produce the results you want.