There is a house in Mt Pleasant, Tobago, where perhaps the sister isle’s youngest dairy farmer lives.
Nine-year-old Keri Alfred already knows how to make an assortment of cheese as well as a variety of flavoured milk-products—all made from goat’s milk.
In fact, her father, Kerry Ricardo Alfred, a university-degreed animal scientist and livestock specialist, boasts that if he is not around, the younger Alfred knows exactly what to do.
But don’t think it a matter of child labour though, as Keri acts in an assistant’s role in the family business and even told the Sunday Guardian that helping in her family’s ‘hustle’ has positively impacted her education.
“It helps me to focus in school, as it teaches me how to try until something is achieved,” Kerry said.
More specific to the subject of agricultural science, she describes it as a “breeze,” adding it gives her a little bit of an advantage over her classmates.
Recently, the Standard Three Lambeau Anglican Primary School student was recognised for a school project in which she did very well.
The project came out of the primary school curriculum and involved taking an agricultural primary product and converting it into a value-added product.
It was a ‘no brainer’ for Keri. Being already familiar with such a process, she chose to create a premium goat cheese, finished with attractive and classy packaging.
Keri represents three generations of livestock farming in the Alfred family, as daddy Alfred revealed he continued his father’s choice of livelihood, minding rabbits then sheep. He did this after he returned in 1995 from attending agriculture school in Guyana, where he completed the Regional Educational Programme for Animal Health Assistance (REPAHA) and attained a diploma in livestock management and production.
It was at seven years old, he said, that he first noticed his daughter’s serious interest in participating in the family’s business, after she also began getting livestock from complete strangers.
“Keri’s Godfather, who is a veterinarian, would take her around with him on house visits and every time she came back, someone they visited would call and say ‘Mr Alfred, I have a kid or a lamb for your daughter’.”
Keri soon acquired six sheep and two goats. Perhaps having a “bright idea” moment or just exhibiting the natural entrepreneur in herself, she soon asked her father, “‘Daddy, ‘ent’ we can sell milk every day?’”
So the sheep were sold and they decided goat’s milk was going to be the main agricultural primary product in their business enterprise.
Beginning with retailed goat milk, Alfred said a decision was also taken on the advice of his daughter to “flavour” the milk, since she believed everyone one may not enjoy it plain.
Laughing, the proud father added, “She came up with vanilla and chocolate and a test batch was made.”
Needless to say, the trial was successful and the business was called Kerriyah Farms - a name derived from the combining of the names of his three daughters - Keri, Kayah and Kallaeyah. They went on to also conceive an assortment of goat cheese, ranging from plain to herbs and spices, to hickory and garlic, and they are preparing to add yoghurt to the Kerriyah line in September.
To her peers, however, Keri might seem different. After all, what average nine-year-old spends time milking a goat and making goat milk-based products, once her homework and studies are complete of course?
She said, “They ask me all the time how I make the products and why I have goats and so many animals?”
But this is of no bother at all to the little businesswoman, whose father notes, “She likes to count money and is always finding a way to make money.”
That aside, it’s also a simple joy for Keri, who finds what’s interesting about helping in her family business is the satisfying feeling she gets at watching people enjoy the finished products of the Kerriyah brand.
Despite her early success, the enterprising young lady has dreams of one day becoming a veterinarian but also vows she has no plan of abandoning her family’s business in the future.
“I’ll do them both,” she said.
She also had some advice for young ambitious minds like hers.
“You are never too young to try anything new or to decide what career path you would take.”
