According to a story in Supermarket News, McArthur Dairy has purchased Winn Dixie’s Miami, FL dairy business unit for $5.75 mil. This is after getting bankruptcy court approval.
McArthur Dairy is owned by Dean Foods.
Lallemand Supports Organic Producers
I’ve been meaning to write about my friends at Lallemand. They have been promoting their quality and committment to organic producers. This includes a portfolio of products approved for organic use like: Alkosel, Agrimos, Biotal, Levucell SB and Levucell SC. You can find out all about these products on their website.
In order to help me understand (by increasing my alertness with caffeine) they also sent me some great San Louis gourmet coffee from Alotenango, Guatemala. I can’t find a website for this coffee or the importer, Lankin Corporation, but if you can find it, it’s good! It’s farm fresh roasted and packed.
25 Years For Trans Ova Genetics
Are you going to the National Western Stock Show? If so, you can congratulate Trans Ova Genetics.
Trans Ova Genetics announces its silver anniversary, celebrating 25 years of market-leading service in the bovine embryo transfer industry. This anniversary celebration will be highlighted at the Trans Ova Genetics booth located North of the cattle barn at the 2006 National Western Stock Show in Denver and various other industry events throughout the year.
Still Get Your Markets By Phone
You probably know you can visit the USDA AMS Dairy Market News website to get their reports. The site covers “the supply, demand, and price situation every week on a regional, national, and international basis for milk, butter, cheese, and dry and fluid products.”
Did you know they still have a phone call-in system to access reports? Just call 608-224-5088 and enter “1” to get started.
Mayfield Dairy Farms And The Vacreator
Sometimes the good old fashioned way is best. At least that’s what Mayfield Dairy Farms believes and proves is working.
In 1955, when companies were unveiling such high-tech marvels as microwave ovens and wireless television remotes, Tom and C. Scott Mayfield were investing in a lesser-known technology that would become the cornerstone of their small dairy’s modern day success.
The Mayfields banked on a promising new vacuum heat technology guaranteed to yield a better tasting milk, thus boosting sales. Five years after mortgaging the family farm to build the Southeast’s first modern milk processing plant, the sons of dairy founder T.B. Mayfield, Jr., purchased the nation’s first vacreator — a vacuum processor used to remove unwanted flavors and odors from milk — for installation in their Athens, Tenn., milk plant.
“The taste of onions and other strong flavors in a cow’s diet alter the taste of milk,” said President Scottie Mayfield, the fourth generation of the Mayfield family to be directly involved in the dairy’s operation. “When we first began using the vacreator to remove unwanted flavors, it was instant success. Sales jumped 25 percent that year.” Today Mayfield is the only dairy in the country that still uses a vacuum heat process to pasteurize milk.
They have a nice interactive website where you can listen to their radio commercials and view a video history of the company.
Pacific Northwest Cheese Project
Time to get back to work here at ZimmComm so let’s get started!
I just found a website you might want to look at. It’s a blog on cheese called the Pacific Northwest Cheese Project, “All about Pacific Northwest cheese, cheesemakers and other cheese related notions.” The author is Tami Parr who lives in Portland, Oregon and describes the site as “a reference and guide to Northwest cheese and cheesemakers…but also a discussion and conversation about cheese and issues related to cheese (including the environment, labor issues, production issues and the like).”
Check the site out. Know of any others we should bring to our readers attention?
Merry Christmas From ZimmComm
ZimmComm, Marketing & Communications is the publisher of World Dairy Diary. Our staff wishes you and yours a very merry Christmas.
From l-r are Amy, Cindy, Chuck and CJ the office dog. We promise to bring you a lot of interesting news and information in the coming year. It’s time now to take the weekend off and celebrate why we are so blessed.
IDFA Dairy Facts 2005 Available
Maybe it’s too late to buy it as a Christmas gift but you can still place your order for the IDFA Dairy Facts 2005.
This comprehensive industry publication provides 150+ pages of key statistics on the sales, consumption and production of milk, cheese, cultured products and ice cream products, including total and per capita trends in sales, consumption and production, imports and exports, wholesale and retail prices, nutrition information, and much more.
Select Sires Gender SELECTed Semen Available
There’s some end of the year news from Select Sires.
Dairy producers who have shown interest in using sexed semen can take advantage of superior genetics offered by proven Holstein and Jersey bulls at stud through Select Sires’ gender SELECTed(TM) program.
“Research has consistently proven this patented technology sex-sorts sperm with 90 percent purity. Dairy producers can be confident in the probability of adding heifers to the herd with the gender SELECTed program,” said Mel DeJarnette, Select Sires senior reproduction specialist. “We’re excited to offer this cutting-edge technology to our customers and help them improve profitability by minimizing the number of unwanted bull calf births,” he said.
Based in Plain City, Ohio, Select Sires Inc., is North America’s largest A.I. organization and is comprised of 10 farmer-owned and -controlled cooperatives.
Holstein Awards Announced
The Holstein Association and Foundation have been active in making awards this month.
Lolly Lesher, Bernville, Pa. has been named the 2005 Distinguished Alumni Leader of the Young Dairy Leaders Institute (YDLI) by the Holstein Foundation board of trustees. The award is presented annually to honor YDLI alumni leadership and contributions to the dairy industry. Other finalists included Paul Heins, Higginsville, Mo. and Marilyn Hershey, Cochranville, Pa.
Lesher and her husband, William, both YDLI Class 2 alumni, own a dairy farm in partnership with William’s parents. The farm includes a family-owned milk processing and retail facility which recently celebrated 35 years of operation.
In other Holstein Association USA announcements:
Holstein Association USA, Inc. announces the 2005 Fall Show Judi Collinsworth Outstanding Junior Exhibitor Memorial Award winners: Greta Koebel, Matt Mitchell and Esther Rupp. Since 1994, 108 outstanding Juniors have been presented this prestigious award named for Judi Collinsworth, the former Holstein Association Executive Director of Member and Industry Services who passed away in 1993 of cancer. Collinsworth was dedicated to improving and expanding Holstein youth programs and was a driving force behind increasing support for them.
Greta Koebel, Three Oaks, Mich., receives the Judi Collinsworth Award from Julie Drendel, Junior Advisory Committee member and John M. Meyer, Holstein Association USA, Inc.’s CEO at the International Junior Holstein Show at the World Dairy Expo.
Matt Mitchell, LaFollette, Tenn., receives the Judi Collinsworth Award from Emily Yeiser, Junior Advisory Committee member at the Premier National Junior Holstein Show at the All-American Dairy Show, Harrisburg, Pa.
Esther Rupp, Seville, Ohio, receives the Judi Collinsworth Award from Michele Lahmers, Junior Advisory Committee member and Perry Phend, Official Judge of Junior show at Grand National Junior Holstein Show at the North American International Livestock Expo, Louisville, Ky.