Joey Bingham grew up on his family’s dairy farm in Gooding, Idaho. He is married to his high school sweetheart and has four beautiful children. The couple chose to leave Gooding to further their education in Boise. Although Joey was eager to return to the farm and his hometown, his wife, having lived most of her growing up years in the Treasure Valley, wanted to make their home in Boise rather than moving back to Gooding.
Joey made his career in respiratory therapy and served in a trauma center in Boise for 12 years. Then one day shortly after their 4th child was born, Joey’s wife surprised him by suggesting that they move back to the family farm. She was tired of him working long hours away from home and felt that moving back to the family farm might allow their family more opportunities to be together.
Joey was so surprised that he called his father right away and asked if there was a spot for him to return to the farm. There was and a few months later they sold their home in the Treasure Valley and moved back to the farm in Gooding.
Shortly after Joey returned to the farm, his parents left to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Joey began the process of purchasing the operation.
Q. What changes have you made since taking over the farm?
A. Back in ’73 when my grandpa and my dad first moved here, the property was about three quarters sage brush. They developed a lot of it, and we have continued to do so as well.
My Dad’s cow management system was a little old fashioned, he was using a pinwheel, so adding herd management software was one of the first changes I made when I came back.
It took my dad a little bit to adjust, but not near as long as I thought it would. As soon as we started seeing a lot more data on our cows, I think I only showed it to him once and he said,” Ok, I am out. You take over from here.”
Q. What goals do you have regarding opportunities for employees?
A. One of my biggest goals in my operation is to create an environment or a place where everyone can grow. Whether they are family by blood or not I want them to feel valued, and that they belong.
Everyone that works for me, or I would rather say, with me, they have stake here and I want them to feel that way. That is where we gain our traction in progressivism. A lot of times in agriculture they talk a lot about sustainability. I hate that reference because it insinuates, we just want to keep doing what we are doing. I don’t think that creates a very good picture of the ag industry. We are not looking to be a sustainable industry but a progressive industry. In 10 years if we keep doing what we are doing today, we won’t be doing very well. We need to keep looking to improve.
I meet with my managers 2x per week. It’s not so much about the day to day, but the people in the meeting. If they are doing the best they can be, then we will be progressive. They need to feel like this is their forever home where they can learn and grow and someday retire and still have things left.
Q. How did you get the idea to start your own creamery?
A. Before my grandpa and dad moved to this farm they had a little 20 cow Jersey dairy in Twin Falls, Idaho. They had started a little ice-cream shop and fresh milk delivery system over there and they called it Milky Way. I had seen lots of their old-fashioned milk bottles and the paper caps they used on them, and I always thought it was really cool. I have always had a dream of having my own ice cream shop and selling fresh milk since I came back to the dairy in 2012.
I never had the drive to do it because we always had plenty to do, but as milk markets have become much more volatile and processors have put quotas on production, I have been looking for ways to diversify. In 2019 I decided I just had to jump and see how it goes. So, I decided to build an on-Farm processing plant. I thought we would be going to 2020, but here we are in 2023 and we are not quite there yet.
Q. What have been the biggest obstacles to overcome?
A. Never ending obstacles, building permits, programmers, etc. I purchased all the equipment from a retired milk processing plant. I had multiple industry engineers look at it, and we thought we were getting something a little bit different than we got. We ended up starting more from scratch than we originally thought we would.
The biggest obstacle by far has been programming for the equipment. But we are finally getting closer!
Q. How have your experiences from working in the trauma center shaped how you run the farm today?
A. In my field of respiratory therapy especially at Saint Alphonsus where I worked, we were given a lot more liberty to practice than most facilities allowed. We tried a lot of new technologies in the field, and it has given me the courage to try new things that have not been proven before. One of the things I have brought back to the farm is the ability to utilize technology to be better at what we are currently doing.
Q. What products are available from Pocket Ranch and Creamery, and how does someone purchase them?
A. My vision for the creamery is not necessarily looking for a niche market as much as being able to provide fresh in-home necessities at a reasonable price. As the products begin to roll out, we will start with farm fresh whole milk, then cheese curds. We will make flavored curds and mozzarella cheese. Fresh butter with multiple flavors, chocolate milk, huckleberry milk, ice cream, and coffee creamers.
I have been doing a lot of beef on dairy crossbreeding and we will offer fresh beef for sale as well.
My youngest boy is a chicken connoisseur, so we are building a chicken flock to sell eggs, We are actually currently selling those now at our distribution point.
Q. How will customers place orders and where will they pick them up?
A. Our goal is to become a home delivery platform. Most of the sales will be placed online at our website and will be subscription based. People can customize their subscription and pick which day they would like to pick it up or have it delivered.
Everybody contacts agriculture, even if they don’t know it and think that WALMART is where our food comes from. My hope is that I can create a platform where people can see where their food actually comes from.
I want people to experience fresh food. The subscription process is important so we only process what needs to be picked up. The goal is that everyone is getting quality fresh food that is healthier and minimally processed.
Q. Where is the distribution point?
A. That is another story in itself! Our distribution point was an old gas station that was no longer open. I purchased it just to use it as a distribution point, but I had some friends suggest that I open it up as a gas station convenience store in addition to being a distribution point. I attacked the endeavor, and the store is doing pretty well. That is also where the ice cream parlor will be.
Through all this I have learned, don’t give up, good things will happen! We are on the downhill slope and looking forward to when we can start processing milk.
Stay up to date with the progress at the creamery by following Pocket Ranch and Creamery on Facebook and Instagram!
Written by: Mariah Gull, M.S.