DFA allocates $28 million; plans N.M. cheese plant - Newsline

Rural Cooperatives, Jan-Feb, 2004 by Patrick Duffey

For the fifth consecutive year, members of Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), Kansas City, Mo., are sharing patronage allocations totaling $28 million, including $7 million in cash. The payout represents 8 cents per hundredweight of milk on 35 billion pounds marketed in 2002. DFA annually markets and processes milk for more than 24,000 dairy farm families in 48 states.

Meanwhile, DFA has purchased 50 percent interest from its partners in Sinton Dairy, Colorado Springs, Colo., and subsequently sold its entire interest to National Dairy Holdings (NDH) LP of Dallas, in which DFA has an ownership interest and supply contract. An $8 million expansion was completed last spring at Sinton. The 232-employee workforce may be expanded if NDH decides to shift production to the plant. NDH now operates 32 plants in 15 states.

In another more, DFA is partnering with Glanbia PLC of Ireland and its cooperative partners in the Greater Southwest Agency in a $170 million cheese processing plant in Clovis, N.M. The plant will employ about 200 people. Operations should begin in the second hall of 2005. The plant will benefit from low milk transportation costs, since many of the producers operate in a 50- to-60-mile radius of the future plant. Other cooperatives in the Greater Southwest Agency are Select Milk Producers Inc., Lone Star Milk Producers Inc. and Zia Milk Producers Inc. Select Milk was formed in 1994 by a group of dairies in New Mexico and has since added others in west Texas.