12 CapitalPress.com
June 1, 2018
Partners launch state-of-the-art organic dairy
By DIANNA TROYER
For the Capital Press
To supply organic milk for Glan-
bia Foods’ cheese production, three
partners in southeastern Idaho opened
Nature Ridge Organic Dairy in 2016,
relying on steady production from
their Holstein/Jersey cows.
“We like the components of a
Jersey and the production of a Hol-
stein and started milking in Decem-
ber 2016,” said Kevin Schroeder,
who along with Reed Gibby and Ray
Robinson began the business because
Glanbia needed more milk for its in-
creasingly popular organic market.
“We’re heading into our next lac-
tation cycle,” said Schroeder, while
watching a morning milking from a
mezzanine. Cows wait their turn in a
holding pen with a capacity of 330 be-
fore being milked during a six-minute
ride on a 60-stall rotating carousel.
“Some of them like it so much,
they don’t want to get off,” said
Schroeder, estimating the dairy’s
2,450 Holstein/Jersey cows produce
about 111,000 pounds of milk daily.
Dianna Troyer/For the Capital Press
Tyler Gilbert manages the dairy, where about 111,000
pounds of milk is produced daily and chilled in tanks.
Before starting the dairy, the three
partners had known each other and
each brought their expertise to the
new business. Schroeder specializes
in purchasing feed and in recycling
and disposal of agricultural waste
products.
Robinson, a member of a co-op
called High Desert Milk in Burley,
owns dairies that milk 20,000 cows
daily.
Dianna Troyer/For the Capital Press
Kevin Schroeder, a partner who started the dairy, specializ-
es in feed acquisition.
Gibby had started a pig farm in the
area and found some ground that had
been out of production for decades,
making it ideal to develop as an or-
ganic dairy because no chemicals or
commercial fertilizers had been used
on it.
To be certified organic, the dairy
must comply with federal standards
and be certified by the Idaho State
Department of Agriculture.
“This is our first organic farm,”
Schroeder said. “We learned about
the rules and regulations you have
to comply with to be certified. Com-
pared to a traditional dairy, produc-
tion costs are a little higher, but you
can sell the milk for a little more to
offset that.”
All hay, grains, and minerals must
be certified organic. Affidavits docu-
menting that information accompany
each load of feed that arrives at the
dairy. The business is routinely audit-
ed.
Nutrition for dairy cows is a com-
plex science.
“Heifers, lactating cows, and
dry cows have different diets,” said
Schroeder. “Most people don’t realize
how precisely the ingredients of their
diets are controlled.”
As a loader scoops feed from
storage areas and places it in a hop-
per, a computerized scales weighs
the hay, grain, minerals, other nu-
trients and water to get the proper
amounts.
When he began managing the
dairy and the 30 employees, Tyler
Gilbert became familiar with organic
regulations.
“It’s been a good learning experi-
ence,” said Gilbert, citing a few of the
rules.
Thirty percent of the cows’ diet
has to come from fresh grass during
the grazing season from May to Sep-
tember. The cows are rotated through
different sections of pastures on the
1,650-acre farm.
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