Elkhart Co. Dairy Farms, Processor Host ISDA Tour
Published: Friday, May 27, 2022
The Indiana State Department of Agriculture and the American Dairy Assn. recently coordinated an Elkhart County Dairy and Business Tour to educate legislators, economic development professionals and the media. The department was created in 2006 during the leadership of former Gov. Mitch Daniels. The department has five divisions: Economic Development, Grain Elevators and Warehouse licensing, Indiana FFA Assn., Soil Conversation, and Public Affairs. Throughout Indiana's history, agriculture has played an important role in the economy. Elkhart County's agriculture businesses were great hosts.
The tour began at the Dairy Farmers of America plant in Goshen. DFA is a farmer-owned cooperative of more than 11,500 dairy farmers on more than 6,000 farms employing approximately 18,000 employees nationwide. The company's mission is to "Deliver Value to Our Family Farm-Owners as a Global Dairy Cooperative."
The core of the cooperative is milk marketing. DFA is the largest global dairy cooperative of raw milk in the world. In 2021, their U.S. sales were $19.3 billion. The Goshen plant has a $91.4 million impact on the city of Goshen.
The company began in 1909—started production for Grade A and manufacturing grade milk and produced plain condensed milk, evaporated whole milk, sweetened condensed milk and cream.
Over the years, the plant in Goshen has manufactured a variety of products. In the 1940s during World War II, it was one of 17 plants to produce and package powered whole milk for the Quartermaster Corps.
There are now 66 employees in Goshen, and they work 24/7 with three eight-hour shifts.
DFA is a balancing plant, which means they adjust their production for what the industry needs in way of their products. The plant is designed to process up to 2.4 million pounds of raw milk per day with an economic impact of $91.4 million.
Today, DFA's mix of products includes cream, ice cream mix, skim, whole and high heat condensed, nonfat dry milk powder and pasteurized whole milk. Although you may not find products in a store made at DFA, you will find many products that use their ingredients, including ice cream, yogurt, cottage cheese, whipped cream, sour cream, bakery items, candies, cheese products and infant formulas.
The second part of the tour was at Green Cow Power, operated by the Brent Martin family. This is a large dairy and digester facility, which is now converting dairy manure and off-farm organic food wastes into energy with two anaerobic digesters. The location is on a former gravel-mining site on C.R. 40 in Goshen. The digester is the largest waste-to-energy facility in Elkhart County and the eighth largest digester operation in Indiana.
The dairy manure is collected from five dairies within a three-mile radius. The food waste comes from businesses in Elkhart County and Michigan.
The use of the food wastes prevents the material from going to landfills. The digester has a total combined capacity of 5 million gallons, and they accept three semi tankers of manure each day.
When the digester is working properly, it can produce enough biogas to power three 1050 kw engines that are fed to NIPSCO. The leftover liquid from the digester is sent to a lagoon to be stored until used as fertilizer for crops, while the digested solids are used as cow bedding.
Crystal Springs Creamery on Ash Road in Osceola was the third stop. The creamery highlighted what family dairy farming is all about when producing fresh dairy products. The farm is the dream and hard work of Tim and Cheryl Martin, their children and employees.
The creamery is located directly on the farm, where they as a family and their employees grow the crops, milk the 300 cows and process the milk, cheese, yogurt and ice creams. The Martins produce their own products in small batches, with minimal processing, paying attention to details. They are using 50 percent of their milk in their production and the rest goes to a co-op. Their products are sold at 80 locations. The farm store is 20 percent of their sales. Their milk doesn't contain any added preservatives, and their cows are not treated with growth hormones, or BST.
In 2017, they began processing cheese curds and yogurt. If you want to observe the curd making process, visit on Mondays. The cheese curds are wmade with whole milk and are hand-crafted. The curds are packaged in 12-ounce containers and are made in seven flavors. The flavors are natural, cracked pepper and sea salt, dill and garlic, habanero, ranch, sun-dried tomato basil and wood-fired pizza. I have tried most of them and have yet to find one that I don't like.
The yogurt is high protein, non-homogenized made with low temperature pasteurization in small batches. The yogurt is packaged in 6 or 32 ounces. All of the fruit fillings are made fresh on site with no artificial flavorings. The flavors of yogurt are: plain, blueberry, honey, maple syrup, peach, orange pineapple, raspberry, strawberry and vanilla.
In 2019, Crystal Springs expanded to process vat pasteurized milk. Vat pasteurization is a slower process and requires extra attention. The milk is bottled in glass bottles, which preserves the flavor and helps to keep the milk colder. The milk is available in pints, quarts and half gallons.
The Martins process homogenized, cream line, 2 percent, skim, heavy cream and flavored milk. Cream line is non-homogenized milk that has a layer of cream that separates from the milk after it has been processed and bottled. It is the most natural form of milk that can be purchased on a store shelf.
The family has created many flavors of milk: chocolate, orange cream, root beer, strawberry, banana split, cold brew coffee, peppermint mocha, eggnog, pumpkin spice latte, vanilla and cinnamon. They are always working on creating new flavors.
The ice cream creation arrived this year after time spent creating their base ice cream. The ice cream is made in 3-gallon batches and has a butterfat of about 15 percent, and that is why it tastes so wonderful. The smooth, sweet flavor is one of the best ice creams I have ever enjoyed. The flavors are black raspberry, black raspberry and chips, butter pecan, butter brickell, cookie and cream extreme, Dutch chocolate, double dark chocolate, dark chocolate with almonds, expresso almond fudge, rocky road, strawberry, heifer tracts, mint chip, Madagascar vanilla and sweet cream vanilla.
This was a real treat for all on the tour. There were some participants who had never been on a dairy farm and seen milk production. Besides all of the farm direct dairy products, they have a country store that has a variety of farm products and farm house décor. This is great farm to plan a visit. Their hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; closed on Sunday. The address is 60020 Ash Rd., Osceola.
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