European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 6, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Attaches milking machines and makes sure no Goat Falls off before her revolution ends. The milk is piped to Cooling tanks and then to Pasteur Zers before it gets to the cheese making room where automation ends and handicraft takes Over. In the cheese room All shiny White tile and gleaming steel Marie Claude Caleix of an Goleme France presides Over the production of a soft fresh cheese As Well As several types of ripened cheeses. We went into this with great naivete Cahn says. We were City people looking for a working Arm whether crops or whatever. We had hoped we could buy a productive Dairy Arm but we soon found Dairy arms Are All struggling. So we looked for a specially  when they decided at the suggestion of their daughter to try Goat farming the cans sought advice from experts across the United slates and in Europe. They hired two people who were to the forefront of the Industry Nordfelt and Caleix. Nordfelt who once had the nation s largest certified Dairy Goat Herd with 1,500 animals near Modesto calif., agreed to move cast to develop Cahn s Herd. Miles brought me out of retirement says Nordfelt former president of the american Dairy Goat association. It sounded real interesting what he was doing a Nice  the Dairy cow Industry is very organized with a lot of research Cahn says. But goats Aren t taken seriously in America As they Are in France where they re a big Industry. Much of what we re doing is largely  but the Goat cheese Industry is growing rapidly says Frank Kosikowski who has been teaching cheese making at Cornell University for 45 years and who founded the american cheese society. There is a tremendous interest in specially cheeses throughout the country Kosikowski says. I feel now that in the United states we Are quite capable of making a Quality farmhouse cheese equal to that found in Europe. Now All we have to do is get the Confidence of the  Kosikowski says at least two dozen companies Are now marketing american made Goat cheese with the majority in new York state and California. The cheese made at coach farm is excellent he says. There s no question that we now have at this place the parameters that will Lead to a consistently High Quality cheese that the Public will  Caleix had a Small Herd of goats in the Bordeaux Region of France and had won prizes for her cheeses at fairs. She had come to new York City to promote the Market for French Goat cheese in America when Cahn asked her to work for him. I believe very much in what i am doing says Caleix who considers her position at coach As that of an artist sponsored by a Patron. Every Day we improve the product a Little More. It has to speak to the customer. It s not so much the taste that s important As the texture. It s very special. And temperature is very important one degree two degrees makes a  last july the cans sold coach leather Ware o the Chicago based Sara Lee corp. For an undisclosed sum. We had t planned to sell coach leather Cahn says but As this took off we were working four Days in new York three Days Here it was just too  Cahn will not say How much he invested in the farm or How much it costs to run but he said it is a substantial amount. He does t expect to make a profit for several years when the Herd is up to 400 to 500 Good  then he predicts he should be generating $1 million a year in sales of cheese and Yogurt. A lot of people Are watching us Cahn says. Goat people Are eager for us to succeed they Hope Well legitimize Goat  a Donkey guards a Herd of goats at a Texas ranch. New Yorac Tim photo Texas ranchers using donkeys As guards they Bray it works by Peter Applebome new York times Ost of the ranchers around Mountain Home Texas had themselves a pretty Good laugh last summer when Perry Bushong forked Over perfectly Good Money for 10 scruffy donkeys taught them to make friends with his Rambouillet sheep and Angora goats and sent them out to work As the Hill country s first guard donkeys. Now the same ranchers Are desperately calling Eddie Tom the local horse trader Over in Leakey begging him to find them anything four legged that has big ears and Brays like an asthmatic foghorn. Oil and Gas May have gone bust but the jackass business is booming in Texas because of the sudden popularity of this new method of protecting livestock from coyotes and other predators. I m Selling every one i can find said Tom who said he has sold 75 donkeys Over the past several months. Them donkeys Are usually gentle but they just Don t like dogs or coyotes. You get them riled they la throw their ears Back Start kicking with their front feet and throw a fit. I be seen one of those Jennies go after a dog like he wanted to kill  a Good Young Donkey now goes for about $250, twice what Bushong paid last year Tom said. No one is saying donkeys alone Are the solution to the predator problem facing ranchers. But Bushong said he was astonished How effective his donkeys have been in protecting the 3,000 goats and 600 sheep he runs on his 20,000 acres of rolling Limestone studded ranch land. Bushong said training is the key to producing a Good guard Donkey. You got to educate them he said you got to Send them to school. You got to make them so lonesome for companionship that they think they re a  that is done he said by taking Young female donkeys and putting them alone with a Herd of sheep or goats. After a while he said the Donkey will Graze feed and sleep with the other animals and protect them As it would its own Young. He said Young donkeys Are the Best candidates although Only one of the older ones failed to work out for predator control. And Only females need apply he said. I be just used the Jennies he said. People say the jacks Are just too Dang mean. They re Likely to turn and go after your  donkeys have been used sporadically to guard livestock in Rural areas in the past. But Bushong said his predator problem particularly with coyotes and russian boars originally introduced Here As game became so desperate a year ago that he decided to try the donkeys after hearing ranchers from East Texas talk about them. Last year he lost about 250 sheep and goats Worth about $75 each he said. His losses Are Down almost completely since he began using the donkeys. Other ranchers have reported similar results and researchers such As Maurice Shelton with the Texas agricultural Experiment station in nearby san Angelo Are studying their use. But ranchers say the donkeys Are not a solution to the predator problem. It does t get rid of the Coyote problem said Scott Campbell publisher of sheep and Golf ranchers Magazine in san Angelo it just moves it to somebody else s  the bushings use various traps and snares in addition to the donkeys. Others have taken to using guard dogs but donkeys need less feeding and care. They also Are not vulnerable to the traps used for coyotes. Of course the dog supporters still tend to be sceptical about the donkeys. I Don t mean to be mean mouthing people s donkeys but i just Don t believe they can handle the problem said Jean Ebeling who raises both Anatolian guard dogs and Angora goats in Marble Falls. We be got a big problem with marauding stray dogs and i Don t think a Donkey could move fast enough to keep stray dogs out. But a dog he s going to Nail them real  Bushong has no such complaints however. The donkeys when riled Are capable of dealing vicious kicks and bites. Neither Bushong nor the researchers in san Angelo Are certain whether they frighten off predators with their braying or actually engage the predators in combat. To Tell you the truth i Don t know what goes on out there said Bushong. They can be big old shabby hairy looking things but i Don t care As Long As they keep doing the  Page 17sunday, july 6, 1986 the stars and stripes