Country people have a reputation for being neighborly, and the community of Portales, New Mexico is no exception. When a tornado ripped through Grande Vida Dairy, more than 50 volunteers pitched in to remove the debris and help the partners who own the dairy get ready for rebuilding. What a wonderful story!
Twisted steel and scrap are jumbled everywhere you look on the Grande Vida Dairy east of Portales. Pens that once held 2,500 head of Holstein dairy cows are empty except for the debris. The remains of the milking barn were being pulled down Saturday in the first step of rebuilding the tornado-ravaged business managed, in partnership with others, by Mike and Cindy Mitchell of Portales.
Church groups, other dairy families and their employees, friends and extended family from the Mitchell clan pitched in. Volunteers also brought water, pizza and donuts for the workers. According to Mitchell family daughter-in-law Jaimi Peterson, good progress was made on the demolition of the milk barn, but a lot of cleanup remains.
Grande Vida partner Stanley Jones estimated the number of cows lost to the tragedy at more than 300 head. All-told, he said the damage at the dairy will likely be $3 million to $4 million. Jones said the milk barn will probably be taken down to the foundation, and they’ll start over from scratch. He said even if things went really well, it would likely be four to six months before the dairy could be rebuilt.