Cozy Cow, Front Range Jersey dairies make most of milk

Gash Caille understands the marketing and business ends of Cozy Cow Diary, which she opened in 2011 with her husband Mark Pfister in Windsor.

Dan Duhalde, owner of Front Range Jersey Dairy in Windsor, knows pretty much everything there is to know about the the dairy business he’s been in his entire life.

Two sides with a mutual interest, Caille and Duhalde crossed paths in 2013 when Duhalde was looking to purchase a dairy in the Windsor area. They found a common thread and have coexisted ever since.

“It’s not easy; you have to look out for yourself and go out and get it; no one’s going to help you get there,” said Duhalde, speaking about achieving success in the competitive dairy business. As a fourth-generation dairyman, his family has been raising dairy cows for more than 90 years.

Front Range has the milk side of things covered. The dairy has 115 cows, from newborns to adults, 85 of which are producing milk. On average, one cow can produce 7 gallons of milk a day. So Duhalde’s 85 cows can produce 595 gallons a day, which Front Range sells to numerous distributors, including Cozy Cow.

Cozy Cow takes the milk from Front Range, pasteurizes it and then uses it to make products such as ice cream, cheese, egg nog, butter and its popular cheese curds. The cheese curds come in nine different flavors, and Cozy Cow is the only manufacturer of the curds along the Front Range.

Cozy Cow benefits from having its milk on site. Front Range benefits from selling to Cozy Cow.

“If we had to have the milk shipped in, it would increase the cost immensely,” Caille said. “By being able to get our milk on site directly from Dan, we cut costs, and those savings can be passed on to our customers.”

In return, Cozy Cow provides ice cream and other treats to numerous tour groups that visit Front Range on a regular basis.

“We have schools; social clubs; (and) men’s, women’s and elder care groups coming through here on a regular basis, and having Cozy Cow here to provide a quality product only enhances our reputation and what we do,” Duhald said.

“We coexist in a business where that is not common. But we make it work, and in the end it has been very successful and that’s what you work for.”

Cow couple

For more information about Windsor’s Cozy Cow Dairy, its products and where to get them, go to www.cozycows.com or call 970-805-4269 and text the word CURDS.

For information about Windsor’s Front Range Dairy including tours, call 970- 460-4056 or go to http://cozycows.com/.