Friday, September 3, 2021
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USDA expands dairy donation program
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
USDA is building on its Milk
Donation Reimbursement Pro-
gram with a new program to help
expand partnerships between dairy
organizations and food banks to
provide products to food-insecure
households.
The Dairy Donation Program
provides one-time funding of $400
million to reimburse dairy farmers,
cooperatives and processors to help
offset the costs associated with pro-
cessing and donating dairy prod-
ucts, USDA announced.
Unlike the Milk Donation Reim-
bursement Program — which only
applied to fluid milk donations —
the new program also includes
dairy products such as cheese and
yogurt. In addition, it helps offset
some of the costs of manufacturing
and transportation, which the fluid
Dairy West
A new USDA program will help
pay the cost of processing and
transporting dairy products
that are donated to food banks
and other anti-hunger groups.
milk program does not provide.
Dairy organizations have eagerly
awaited details of the program and
commended USDA for supporting
the industry’s continued efforts to
address hunger and food insecurity.
“This important program will
help dairy farmers and the coop-
eratives they own to do what they
do best: feed families nationwide,”
said Jim Mulhern, president and
CEO of National Food Producers
Federation.
“Dairy stakeholders are eager
to enhance their partnerships with
food bank and other distributors
to provide dairy products to those
experiencing food insecurity, which
the COVID-19 pandemic has only
exacerbated,” he said.
NMPF worked closely with
USDA to ensure the program
addressed additional costs such as
processing and transportation, as
well as other elements that make
the program more viable. The pro-
vision covering the cost of process-
ing is a significant enhancement
from the previous program, it said.
NMPF will continue to work
with Congress to secure additional
funding for the program in the
future, Mulhern said.
Since the start of the pandemic,
U.S. dairy producers and dairy food
companies have led efforts to feed
the hungry and support struggling
communities, said Michael Dykes,
president and CEO of the Interna-
tional Dairy Foods Association.
USDA’s Dairy Donation Pro-
gram is providing the industry with
one more tool to reach Americans
in need, while ensuring a fair mar-
ket value for donated products for
dairy food producers, he said.
“The dairy industry welcomes
the opportunity to continue to part-
ner with nonprofits, charities and
other organizations working to
combat hunger and nutrition inse-
curity,” he said.
Congress directed USDA to
develop the program in December
through the Consolidated Appropri-
ations Act of 2021 to facilitate dairy
product donations and reduce food
waste.
Dairy farmers, cooperatives or
processors that purchase fresh milk
or bulk dairy products to process
into retail-packaged dairy products
and meet other requirements are eli-
gible to participate.
Those eligible dairy organiza-
tions will partner with nonprofit
organizations that distribute food
to individuals and families in need.
Those partnerships can apply for
and receive reimbursement related
to eligible dairy product donations
since Jan. 1, 2020.
The program is part of USDA’s
broader $6 billion plan to expand
assistance to more producers using
discretionary funding from the
Consolidated Appropriations Act
and other funding that went unspent
by the Trump administration.
Dairy processor focuses
efforts on niche markets
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Glanbia
The new Midwest Cheese plant in St. Johns, Mich. The 370,000-square-foot plant is
one of the largest cheese manufacturing facilities in the U.S.
Glanbia builds on success
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Glanbia’s successful joint
venture with Dairy Farm-
ers of America and Select
Milk Producers at Southwest
Cheese in Clovis, N.M., has
provided a springboard for a
new cheese plant in St. Johns,
Mich.
The $470 million Midwest
Cheese plant began opera-
tions in October 2020, pro-
cessing 2.9 billion pounds of
milk annually — 8 million
pounds daily. It produces 300
million pounds of cheese and
20 million pounds of whey a
year in one of the most tech-
nologically advanced dairy
processing facilities in the
U.S.
Things have changed a
lot in the 15 years since the
New Mexico plant began
operation. Those changes are
reflected in the design of the
Michigan plant, said George
Chappell, vice president of
dairy operations for Glanbia
Nutritionals.
Dairy Farmers of America
and Select Milk Producers are
also partners in the new plant,
supplying the milk, while
Glanbia makes and markets
the cheese and whey.
Glanbia used a lot of
3-dimensional
modeling
with the general contractor
to line up all the equipment,
pumps, pipes, hole penetra-
tions and electrical lines for
operations.
“It was amazing the accu-
racy of which we could pre-
dict where we needed to
place equipment,” he said
during the latest “Dairy
Download” podcast.
The benefit of that was
less rework, less chance for
error and the ability to take
the plant to full production as
quickly as possible without
“bumps along the way” once
it was built, he said.
“One of the things that’s
really made this project a suc-
cess is we brought together
kind of what we consider to
be some of the best of the
best in the industry,” he said.
Glanbia is efficient at
owning and operating a large
cheese manufacturing facil-
ity, he said.
“So even on the outset,
we had a very clear vision of
what we wanted this plant to
deliver. And we laid out very
clear success criteria for our
contractors,” he said.
Due to the size of the facil-
ity — 370,000 square feet —
operations have to be broken
into chunks. One of the con-
tractors on the project said
Glanbia effectively designed
seven buildings under one
roof, he said.
But plant design is not the
only thing that has changed
over the years.
“There’s been some good
advances in the process
equipment and what you can
do in controlling variabil-
ity. But the biggest thing for
us over the past two decades
has really been automation,”
he said.
“It’s the secret sauce that
you don’t see behind the
scenes,” he said.
University names third class of Chobani Scholars
Capital Press
The University of Idaho
College of Agricultural and
Life Sciences has selected four
students as its next class of
Chobani Scholars.
The high school graduates
receive $20,000 each from
Chobani to support their four-
year degree. This is the third
year in a row that Chobani has
funded the grants.
All four of this year’s stu-
dents are from the Magic Val-
ley in south-central Idaho,
where Chobani operates a
yogurt plant. The students are
majoring in animal, veterinary
and food sciences at CALS and
will pursue a variety of careers
as the next generation of Idaho
dairy professionals.
Their career ambitions
include helping to improve the
public’s understanding of the
dairy industry’s sustainability
and animal well-being prac-
tices, the university said in a
press release.
“The future of dairy mat-
ters to us and one of the best
ways to help Idaho farmers
is to equip tomorrow’s dairy
leaders with the tools they need
to thrive,” said Peter McGuin-
ness, president and COO of
Chobani.
“The Chobani Scholars
program is one way that Cho-
bani is investing in the future
of dairy in our home states,”
he said.
“We are excited to welcome
the next group of four outstand-
ing young people to the Cho-
bani Scholars program and to
the U of I College of Agricul-
tural and Life Sciences,” said
Michael Parrella, CALS dean.
The Chobani Scholars pro-
gram was established at the
University of Idaho in 2018.
The scholarships are for Idaho
students with family connec-
tions to dairy farming and
who intend to pursue a career
in the dairy farming industry.
In addition to the scholarship,
the Chobani Scholars will also
have an opportunity to intern
with Chobani during their col-
lege careers.
The
2021
Chobani
Scholars:
• Reina Elkin graduated
from Buhl High School and
plans to major in pre-veteri-
nary science.
“I want a career in the ag
industry because I’m fasci-
nated by the opportunities that
are available for women espe-
cially. I plan to use my degree
to develop my knowledge in
pursuing a career as a veteri-
narian, she said.”
• Juan Jaquez graduated
from Minico High School in
Rupert and plans to major in
pre-veterinary science.
“I know that dairy farms
have a huge place in the econ-
omy of Idaho. This is why
I want to become a veteri-
narian because I will help
farmers have healthy cows
to grow Idaho’s economy,”
he said.
• Ariana Olmos graduated
from Minico High School in
Rupert and plans to major in
pre-veterinary science.
“I would like a career in
dairy farming because it’s part
of a huge industry in south-
ern Idaho and I would like to
come back and help commu-
nities here. These opportunities
will lead me to have real world
experiences,” she said.
• Avrie Ottley graduated
from Burley High School and
plans to major in dairy science.
“Obtaining a degree will
give me more opportunities
for a higher-paying job, better
positions and a stronger under-
standing of the agricultural
workforce,” she said.
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Kansas Dairy Ingredi-
ents, a world leader in man-
ufacturing and marketing
ultrafiltered concentrated
milk products, announced
in June it is investing $45
million to expand its pro-
cessing facility in Hugoton,
Kan.
In addition to its ultra-
filtered milk products,
which have more protein
and calcium and less car-
bohydrates, the company
produces European-style
butters, cheese and cheese
curds.
The expansion will
include a 90,000 square-
foot plant to manufacture
cheese and butter. The com-
pany currently process 1.6
million pounds of milk a
day in its 45,000 square foot
concentration plant. The
company expects to process
3 million pounds of milk a
day total when the cheese
and butter plant goes on
line.
The company was
founded in 2012, with
KDI working with a hand-
ful of strategic customers
that needed milk solids for
cheese and other products,
said Tim Gomez, a founder
of KDI and CEO of KDI
Cheese Co.
“Our growth strategy has
been in place for several
years,” he said during the
latest “Dairy Download”
podcast.
About 4 years ago, KDI
made a large investment in
its Kansas plant to be able
to fully treat its wastewater
and be in a position to grow
in the future. That future is
now, he said.
“We’ve
strategically
tried to stay away from the
commodity products,” he
KDI
The Kansas Dairy Ingredients plant in Hugoton, Kan.
said.
Instead, the company has
focused on niche markets,
which are a little more prob-
lematic for very large facili-
ties, he said.
“We think we can do it
on a smaller scale and pro-
vide good service to the
customers that we’re work-
ing with,” he said.
With the expansion, KDI
will have some portion of its
business that makes com-
modity cheese, but it is defi-
nitely not the focus, he said.
“We understand that
you’ve got to have some
scale and volume to be effi-
cient. But we really see our
niche being able to service
cheeses that are hard Italian
or Hispanic and then maybe
some strategic Ameri-
can-style cheeses,” he said.
“So we’re wanting to
slow our processes down
so that we can make very
high-quality cheeses that
give foodservice as well as
retail … a vehicle to be able
to provide products that we
feel consumers are wanting
and they’re wanting more
of,” he said
The company moved its
operational office to Colo-
rado Springs, Colo., about
four years ago with a mis-
sion to have Colorado as
its focus market. It wanted
to launch that effort in the
spring of 2020 with a focus
on foodservice but had to
pivot due to the pandemic
shutdowns.
The company instead
targeted consumers directly
with a home-delivery ser-
vice and jumped into farm-
ers markets to get its name
out there, he said.
“We started talking to
consumers and really it
became very organic in
the sense that we started to
learn what consumers were
wanting,” he said
Communities and chefs
in Colorado have really
supported KDI and gave the
company confidence that
it was on the right path, he
said.
“They appreciated the
focus on a high-quality,
more premium type prod-
uct,” he said.
Consumers are also
interested in what’s happen-
ing on the farm, what farm-
ers are doing for sustainabil-
ity and what KDI is doing to
be sustainable, he said.
The farmers who supply
milk to KDI have been good
stewards of the land and are
investing in their facilities
to make their facilities and
businesses sustainable, he
said.
“We just want to carry
that message forward for
them, and if we can do that
a little bit through our prod-
ucts that’s our goal, he said.
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