New England Cooperative Offers Premium

Chuck ZimmermanDairy Business

Agri-MarkNew England milk cooperative, Agri-Mark, has formed a new cooperative called New England Family Dairy Farms Cooperative. According to the news release, the cooperative hopes to sell bottled milk locally at a premium to be distributed to area farmers when prices are low.

House Hearing

Chuck ZimmermanDairy Business, General, Government

The House Agriculture Subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight, Dairy, Nutrition, and Forestry held a hearing in Fresno, California on Saturday to review the state’s dairy industry. The Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R-MN), heard from a variety of dairy producers and processors representing California’s dairy industry. “California’s dairy producers and processors are among the industry’s leaders, and their testimony … Read More

Swiss Valley Purchase

Chuck ZimmermanDairy Business, Industry News

Announced Friday, Swiss Valley Farms Inc., a mid-west dairy cooperative, has purchased the Shullsburg Creamery campus in Shullsburg for $4 million. The transaction included the cheese manufacturer’s 18.4-acre campus, which has three buildings and a wastewater treatment building. The four structures total 80,058 square feet. Swiss Valley Farms has yet to decide which of its product lines would be produced … Read More

Dairymatic at World Dairy Expo

Chuck ZimmermanDairy Business

Here’s another reason to attend World Dairy Expo – a new time-saving and efficiency product called Dairymatic. Dairymatic controls the milking and wash systems on dairy farms through special software. With over 250 alarms, the software can detect problems with the milking or wash systems and alert up to six different employees through email, fax or page. In an article … Read More

Kraft to Improve New York Plant

Chuck ZimmermanDairy Business, Products

Kraft Foods will invest more than $10 million to improve its cream cheese manufacturing plant in Lowville, N.Y. In return, Kraft will receive a state grant of up to 950-thousand dollars to assist in the purchase of machinery, equipment and related facility improvements. The announcement was made last week by New York Lt. Gov. Mary Donohue. The company plans to … Read More

New Chief at Prairie Farms

Chuck ZimmermanDairy Business, General

Edward L. Mullins is the new Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of Prairie Farms Dairy, Inc. Mr. Mullins’ appointment follows Roger D. Capps, who served as CEO of the dairy cooperative from October 2000 until his death on July 15, 2006. Ed joined Prairie Farms Dairy in 1980, working in retail dairy sales. Since September 2003, Ed had … Read More

Hoard's to Expand Farm Facilities

Andy VanceDairy Business, Media


I’ve been a big fan of Hoard’s Dairyman since I started writing about the industry, quickly adding a three-year subscription to my list of must-read publications. I’ve also always thought it is perhaps the coolest farm publication in the business because it’s the only one I’m aware of that has its own working farm! The latest word from Hoard’s is that the farm itself is growing:

Pro-Choice Dairying

Chuck ZimmermanDairy Business

To help dairy farmers make decisions that are in their economic best interest, Monsanto is providing customers with a producer decision guide titled Dairying Equals Choices. The guide outlines important questions for dairy producers to ask if approached with requests to supply milk from cows not supplemented with POSILAC bovine somatotropin. According to Kevin Holloway, president of Monsanto Dairy Business, … Read More