When Tammy Fritsch talks about her girls, she isn’t referring to girlfriends or daughters, she is talking about her cows. As the owner of Two Guernsey Girls Creamery in Freedom, she works alone and has a day that typically starts at 4:30 a.m. and ends well into the evening.
But you won’t hear her complain.
“This was my dream to have a creamery,” Fritsch said. “I was motivated to start this business from scratch and I wouldn’t change anything.”
She had been raised on a farm, but didn’t think she would want to go back after graduating from Carthage College with a degree in graphic design. After working in the corporate world, her plans began to change.
“In 1997, I was working for a big company, but realized my future would not be in that world. I rented a barn to raise heifers and show cattle. Then I got back into showing cattle at fairs and realized that was what I wanted to do. When you are raised on a farm, it is in your blood,” Fritsch said.
As she continued working full time, her hobby became more intense. But it was the birth of her daughter, Breanna, in 2000 that motivated the purchase of a new breed of cow. Breanna was lactose intolerant and Fritsch and her husband began looking for options. While breastfeeding, the baby was able to tolerate the milk, but after weaning, could not.
Their research showed that mother’s milk carries the A2 gene. To replicate that, Fritsch switched to goat’s milk, which has that gene. Further research revealed that Guernsey cows also have that gene. In fact, it is an excellent alternative.
Fritsch explained that A2 milk is produced by Guernsey cows. They carry the A2 beta-casein gene and do not produce the sometimes problematic A1 beta-casein protein. That makes the milk easier to digest than conventional milk. It is high in beta-carotene and reputed to have benefits such as improving vision, heart, lungs, cognitive function, and skin health.
By age 3, Breanna was working alongside her mom. Several years after that, she joined 4-H, and in 2007, after buying their first Guernsey cow, Breanna chose that cow as her 4-H project. That led to a greater appreciation for the breed and a path that would lead to a new business.
Fritsch said, “In 2017, my husband and I bought an equine facility and converted it to a dairy farm. We took out the horse stalls and retrofitted it and added five milk stalls, concrete floors, and a pipeline. We built a state-of-the-art facility from scratch.”
It wasn’t an easy job. In the process of touring almost a dozen other microdairies, Fritsch knew it would be a challenge.
“After visiting the other dairies and seeing how hard it is, I didn’t think I wanted to do this,” she said. “I knew I was kind of reinventing the wheel here, but I took away that this is what the community needs.”
She believed that Guernsey cows were also needed. The breed is less common than breeds like Holsteins because of a shift in raising cows that produce a higher milk volume. The Guernsey breed has a poorer fertility rate, but the compensation is in the benefit of the milk that is produced.
That was what had interested her and Brianna when they began to enter and win numerous contests. It was their love for the breed that led to the business name, Two Guernsey Girls Creamery. As the plans for the creamery came together, Fritsch was ready to get started. However, it was a lengthier process than anticipated.
By the time that the microdairy opened in 2021, she had obtained, by necessity, 19 permits for operation.
She said, “It takes a long time to get something like this running and it isn’t cheap; you have to sell a lot of milk.”
The milk was priced based on the cost of other higher-end specialty milks. For assistance throughout the process, she touched bases with a business mentor in Oregon who offered training. In writing a business plan, the numbers indicated that the dairy could be successful. That has led to considerable growth.
The first Guernsey cow soon became the first of five, and as production warranted it, it became 15. That led to a line of products that includes white and flavored milks and cheese. There is an e-commerce store online at twoguernseygirlscreamery.net and a retail shop in Freedom, or visit the Facebook page.
Fritsch has occasional help, but is generally running it all herself. Brianna, now a college graduate with a full-time job, isn’t able to help like she did in the past. That leaves Fritsch to make cheese, milk cows twice a day, run the store, fill orders, do the bookkeeping, drop off samples for testing, update marketing, and perform dozens of other chores.
She said, “On cheese curd days, I’m up at 4:30 a.m. Next, I pull batches of milk to drop off at a local lab for testing. After getting the results, I’m home to milk the cows between 7 and 7:30 a.m. In between, I change and shower and then head out to the creamery. I milk the cows again at 5:30 p.m. We eat dinner about 8:30 at night.”
During the day, she greets customers and sells at the retail shop located at the creamery. In addition to her milk and cheese (she now has about seven varieties), the store carries some locally sourced products like meat and eggs. She worked under a local cheesemaker to train to earn a cheesemaker license.
There are still shows, as well. Last year, at the Wisconsin State Fair, Two Guernsey Girls Creamery won the top award in two categories.
“We’d like to do a few more shows this year. We have some nice animals we own and would like to get them out. It helps us to get our name out there when we can say we are an award-winning microdairy,” Fritsch said.
Even without that additional recognition, the word is getting out. Production is at capacity and Fritsch says it’s hard to keep up with it all. But she continues to push herself to accomplish more. The latest venture is a foray into ice cream making.
“We are starting a second location down the road and moving into ice cream. Our mix is proprietary and is currently being formulated. Over time, we hope to have 26 flavors,” she said. “I will have to hire for that shop.”
The Facebook page has additional details. With the addition of the second location, Fritsch hopes to make the business more financially stable within the next year. There are steps she wishes she had taken earlier on in the process.
She said, “I was surprised at the number of hours that goes into this. The cows must be milked and there are days when I dump milk just so I can get away for a few hours. I should have installed bigger tanks; I didn’t know I would grow this big, this fast.”
Tina Dettman-Bielefeldt is co-owner of DB Commercial Real Estate in Green Bay and past district director for SCORE, Wisconsin.
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