June 3, 2016
CapitalPress.com
Dairy branches out with on-farm bottling
By CECILIA PARSONS
For the Capital Press
Photos by Cecilia Parsons/For the Capital Press
Ron Locke of Top O’ the Morn Farms feeds his friendly Holsteins during a short break from his duties
overseeing milk production, processing and delivery at his Tulare County, Calif., dairy.
food items including butter,
cheese, eggs and coffee.
All of these products can
be delivered to customers
who are on routes from the
Fresno-Clovis area to Tulare
and Visalia.
The products are deliv-
ered between 11 p.m. and 6
a.m. to an owner’s ice-filled
cooler. Top O’ The Morn also
operates a popular drive-thru
dairy store in Tulare.
The bulk of their retail
sales is trucked to grocery
stores in the Central Valley
and the Central Coast. Top
O’ The Morn milk products
can be found from the Fres-
no-Clovis area to Exeter and
on the Central Coast from
Paso Robles to Carpenteria
in independent grocery stores
and at Albertsons stores.
The on-site processing
niche does set the dairy
apart from its neighbors in
dairy-rich Tulare County, but
Locke notes that the work-
load requires much more than
dairy management. Besides
growing feed for the cows,
overseeing nutrition, cow
comfort and milking, Locke
has to keep hundreds of cus-
tomers and retailers happy
with his product.
Evidence of his success at
that comes in the form of re-
cent awards received by Top
O’ The Morn. In 2015 their
Sweet Cream Salted Butter
was named the New Product
Buyers Choice at the Fresno
Food Expo. Top O’ The Morn
Farms was also honored at
the Los Angeles County Fair’s
International Dairy Products
Competition.
Bottling strawberry-flavored milk at the Top O’ The Morn milk
processing facility at the dairy.
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Top O’ The Morn Farms
Inc. is closing in on a goal
set in 2012 when Tulare, Ca-
lif., area dairy producers Ron
and Evie Locke expanded into
retail sales and started one of
the few farmstead milk glass
bottling operations in the
state.
The Lockes, owners of Top
O’ The Morn Farms, started in
2012 to send about 1 percent
of their daily milk production
to their on-site processing and
bottling facility.
Two years later, the plant
was processing 2 percent.
This year, Ron Locke said
the business continues to
move toward using 7 percent
of the farm’s daily milk vol-
ume.
“Cow numbers have re-
mained the same for the past
four years, but going into re-
tail — it’s been a tremendous
amount of work,” said Locke.
Top O’ The Morn Farms is
a member of Dairy Farmers
of America, which processes
the majority of the dairy’s
milk from 2,000 Holsteins.
Milk that is piped to the pro-
cessing plant on the dairy is
used for a variety of prod-
ucts, including sweet cream
butter — the farm’s newest
addition.
Milk from Top O’ The
Morn Farms is bottled in
half-gallon, quart and “mini”
16.9-ounce glass bottles.
Their white milk comes in
2 percent, skim and whole.
Their flavored milks — which
are popular items — come in
chocolate, strawberry, root
beer, coffee and peanut butter
and chocolate.
The dairy business also
bottles half-and-half, heavy
cream and seasonal eggnog.
Buyers in grocery stores pay
a deposit on the returnable
bottle.
Top O’ The Morn Farms
has also carved out a niche
in home delivery of not only
milk but locally sourced
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