Ballet dancers turn to making goat cheese on their goat farm

Sep 15, 2016

Craig Sanok and Paul Chambers operate Dancing Goats Farm

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

A pair of dancers have traded in their ballet shoes for work boots to explore their new found passion for making goat cheese.

Craig Sanok and Paul Chambers, once both travelling ballet dancers, opened Dancing Goats Farm near Acme, Alberta, where they have 44 goats and 128 acres of land.

Eighteen goats are milked twice daily for a daily total of about 57 litres of milk.

Sanok said the idea for a farm came about after deciding his time as a dancer was coming to an end.

“When I retired from my performing career I was looking for the next passion I wanted to do,” Sanok told CBC’s The Homestretch. “I knew I wanted to work with animals and knew I loved working with food.”

Craig and Paul
Craig Sanok, left, and Paul Chambers.
Photo: Calgary Herald

Sanok, who was born in the United States, said his passion for goats and goat cheese surfaced after helping his sister milk a neighbour’s goats.

"We came home and I figured out a really easy cheese recipe and made the cheese and served it her and my brother and his family and it was sort of one of those things that was incredible, being able to go from the animal to the table.”

Both men have dedicated themselves to the farm, the animals and the business, but Paul still teaches through Alberta Ballet.

“Our alarm goes off at around 5:30 a.m.” Chambers told CBC.

Watering, feeding and milking is repeated throughout the day. For three days each week, Craig makes cheese on site with names like Waltz and Two Step.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.