Known for delivering milk in old-fashioned glass bottles, Summit Station Dairy & Creamery started in 1947 with only 15 cows
This one-time small family farm near Hamilton now milks 450 cows and has 60 employees. They deliver milk door-to-door to 200 area families and they have one of the best-managed herds in the country.
Nelson Zandbergen
Farmers Forum
COPETOWN — In 2023, after more than 75 years of milking cows, the Loewith family embraced a monumental $8 million expansion to process and retail their own milk, and they didn’t stop there. They also revived old-fashioned door-to-door delivery in glass bottles and opened an on-farm store stocked with their own curds, yogurt and milk.
“I didn’t realize they made learning curves this steep,” chuckled Ben Loewith, 51, partner in the 100-acre farm operation with a 450-head milking herd. “It’s been challenging, but it’s still been a lot of fun.”
Though the farm ships most of its milk through the collective Dairy Farmers of Ontario system, the Loewiths have carved out their own dairy niche a short drive from Hamilton’s metropolitan area of about 800,000 people.
The farm produces about 20,000 litres of milk daily, all of it from cows that exclusively produce more digestible A2 protein milk. About 10 % of production is processed and sold by the farm itself, according to Loewith, who leads the farm side of the operation. His wife, Jennifer Howe, serves as general manager of the processing and retail on-farm business, branded as Summit Station Dairy & Creamery. Despite being retired and in their 70s, Loewith’s father, Carl, and uncle, Dave, also contribute to the operation that now employs more than 60 people.
‘Summit Station’ is a tribute to the former train station that once stood across the road from the farm at the highest point along the now defunct Toronto-Hamilton-Buffalo rail line. The old railway bed is now a recreational trail, an attractive 45-minute bicycle trip from Hamilton.
Summit Station’s name and retail shop design pays tribute to the former train station that was once located across the road.
Appropriately, the family constructed their retail shop and processing facility in the style of an old-fashioned train station, complete with a replicated piece of railway tracks installed by their landscaper. Loewith said their urban neighbours appreciate the vintage look of what has become a major local agri-tourism destination prominently perched on a hill overlooking Highway 52. A drab commercial building would have been cheaper to build but would have lacked the same marketing cachet.
In another historical echo, they deliver Summit Station milk in traditional glass bottles weekly to 200 Hamilton and Dundas-area customers who sign up as yearly subscribers. They also supply about 40 retail stores, but in the end, traffic through the farm store accounts for the majority of sales, he said.
A full-fat 4.5 % chocolate milk was among their first products and remains their most popular offering, he said. “It is really, really good if I do say so myself,” he said. “We actually worked with the food innovation centre at the University of Guelph to come up with the recipe.”
They also offer strawberry- and coffee- flavoured milk, plain whole and 2 % milk as well as cream, cheese curds and a balkan-style yogurt. Most of their milk is homogenized because today’s customer is unfamiliar with, or even put off by, the sight of cream floating at the top of the bottle, he said. But they do offer non-homogenized milk for the minority of consumers seeking that traditional form of milk as well.
Ben Loewith in the milking parlour.
He proudly points to the transparency of the operation, noting that over 8,000 people toured the farm and processing facility last year. Visitors are shown firsthand how the milk is made and, crucially, “how the cows are treated,” he said. They “leave the farm feeling fantastic about Ontario dairy,” he said, regardless of whether they buy specifically from Summit Station or standard dairy products from the grocery store.
Who knew that people would pay to tour a dairy farm? But they do in this case, at a rate of $15 per head. The popular tours of 25 people are booked to capacity every Saturday.
Summit Station is among more than two dozen Ontario dairy farms authorized to process their own milk into saleable dairy products.
Loewith explained that they made the leap into processing because they wanted to progress and grow, but traditional farm expansion was not feasible. Besides the dearth of available quota, they are hemmed in by urban neighbours, and getting a building permit for a bigger manure lagoon wouldn’t have been possible. But the traditional constraints of being surrounded by urbanites turned into a big plus when it came to finding a ready market for their products, he said. They settled on their current product lineup because fluid milk, curd, cream and yogurt do not require processor quota.
Beyond the retail store with its attached processing facility, there’s a large pavilion and outdoor area where they host a variety of special events. The store includes a coffee bar whose true purpose is to showcase their milk and cream. About 70 % of sales in the store are products of the actual farm, he said. The rest comes from the proceeds of the coffee bar, Chapman’s ice cream sales in the summer, hard cheeses brought in from other suppliers, and a variety of other items.
Loewith credited their marketing success to his wife, a former television producer. Every Thursday, the family and four key employees have a two-hour meeting to discuss priorities and keep everyone on the same page.
Ben Loewith with his father Carl (centre) and uncle Dave.
Marketing success means, first and foremost, embracing the idea of serving customers and being a “people person,” in Loewith’s estimation. “For us, it’s not really about loving the product,” he explained. “It’s about loving people.”
Between the farm and processing and retail operations, there’s a lot to manage. They do it all well. The dairy herd itself was recently recognized as one of the best managed in Canada by Lactanet Canada. They are consistently named one of the top 10 managed herds in Canada and all of their cows are descendants from the original 15.
Loewith attributed their fifth-place national finish to his employees. “It’s a very good team where we’ve spent a lot of time working on communication between different people … We’re quite proud of the fact that we have some quite senior employees here. That’s a big part of making things run well around here, is having those tenured skilled people.”
