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DAIRY FUTURES
Fallon bets the farm on dry milk processing plant.
WRITTEN BY JESSICA SANTINA
PHOTO BY CANDICE NYANDO
Entering the Dairy Farmers of America milk processing plant feels a bit like gaining entry at NASA. Situated on 38 acres in the New River Industrial Park in east Fallon, the $85 million state-of-the-art facility resembles a space station, with its monitored security gate and four towering, silver silos. Once inside the gate, visitors must sign off on a full-page list of personal hygiene practices and other requirements for entry to the plant.
Such measures ensure the utmost quality for the dry milk powders produced there. And they are an indication of how the plant, since its opening in April 2014, has revolutionized dairy farming in Nevada. Ironically, the Space-Age facility has been a welcome addition to the agricultural landscape, making it possible for small dairy farmers to make a living and grow their farms.
Cream of the crop
The plant’s development was an effort by the DFA, a marketing cooperative of dairy farmers, to address a widening gap between global demand for processed milk products and the supply currently available. The DFA saw an opportunity in the plentiful, high-quality milk produced in Northern Nevada.
“[DFA members] looked at it in a couple of ways: ‘Here, we have an opportunity to make a good whole-milk export product, and we have an opportunity to cut some of the hauling costs for area farmers,” explains Wesley Clark, the DFA plant’s facility manager. “For years, local farmers had been hauling milk to California, trying to move the milk any way they could.”
By building the Fallon plant, it eliminated the need to haul milk across state lines, potentially turning Nevada’s dairy industry into a cash cow.
Construction began in April 2012 and was completed within two years. The equipment was able to produce whole milk powder the first day production began. During the next few months the equipment produced nonfat, skim, and agglomerated powders. The powders are used in a variety of products, including infant formulas, hot cocoa mixes, cheeses, and processed foods.
The plant is the first of its kind, built to satisfy the demands of the global marketplace from the ground up, with exacting standards for cleanliness and the ability to calibrate ingredients to each customer’s exact specifications. As milk arrives, the trucks are weighed upon entry. Trailers are inspected thoroughly, milk quality is assured before it’s even brought onto the property, and drivers are prohibited from entering the facility. Delivery lines and silos are cleaned every 24 hours.
Inside the plant, workers wear masks and head-to-toe sterile uniforms. All indoor air is HEPA filtered and passes only once through the facility. As the milk is processed, it is tested every 15 seconds to ensure that its percentages of protein, fat, lactose, and other additives precisely match customers’ rigorous expectations. Sophisticated gas-packing technology completely eliminates oxygen from packaging and extends product shelf life.
The plant’s 45 to 50 employees currently work to process 1.3 million pounds of raw milk every day. When capacity is reached, they’ll process 2 million pounds of raw milk into 285,000 pounds of milk powder every day. This is a level Clark believes the plant will reach by the end of this year. About 90 percent of the products created at the plant are exported to Vietnam, Colombia, China, the Middle East, and other countries around the world.
Powdered gold
For the 18 Fallon farms currently producing raw milk for the plant, the DFA has been a godsend.
“It’s given these farmers a future, a succession plan,” says Al Trace, director of member services for the DFA’s Western Fluid Group. “We had farms here that had no opportunity to grow. If they had family members, maybe a son or daughter, who wanted to get into the family business and take over the farms, they couldn’t really plan on doing that.”
Trace says that roughly one quarter of milk per day coming out of the Fallon region supplies Model Dairy, but until the DFA plant opened, the remaining three quarters was being hauled to California each day, with prohibitive freight costs that the area farms were responsible for paying.
“Now, it’s an hour or less from the farm to the plant,” Trace says. “It’s the same group of Nevada farms producing a dedicated supply 365 days a year to the Fallon, Nevada plant, which our customers appreciate.”
Trace says that the plant has not only revived dairy farms in Fallon, but it’s also placed added demand on them, allowing them, if they choose, to expand their operations and double or even triple their herds. And it’s enabling a new farmer to relocate from California to Smith Valley this year, to become the 19th area milk producer. Such growth should secondarily benefit hay and alfalfa producers, who provide feed to dairy farms.
“Dairy Farmers of America has given them the chance to grow and continue their family farms,” Trace says, “because now they have a state-of-the-art facility right outside their back door.”
Jessica Santina is a freelance writer and editor; a writing instructor at the University of Nevada, Reno; and the managing editor of edible Reno-Tahoe magazine.
