Page 9 - DairyOnThePrairie

Dairy on the Prairie 7

RADIANCE DAIRY Upper:family milking cows by hand. Courte-
sy ofIowa State University Library/Special Col-
In 2003, the Radiance Dairy in Fairfield lections Department.
was the only on-site bottling facility in the
state. Run by Francis and Susan Thicke, Lower: cheese manufacturing: packed and pressed
the plant processes and bottles non-ho- cheese infinal stages before curing. Courtesy ofIowa
mogenized milk from the farm's 65 cows, State University Library/Special Collections Depart-
and produces whipping cream, yogurt ment.
and several cheeses. The couple markets
their dairy products to local restaurants, ers delivered in cans, just as the early creameries did.29 turing had already developed into an important mar-
Maharishi University, and grocery stores Non-homogenized milk, once a staple in every house- ket for dairy farmers by 1920, and by 1995 Iowa was
in the Fairfield area, where the premium hold, required some reacquainting with Iowa consum- among the top ten states in the overall manufacture
prices paid for the couple's organic milk ers. However, once they learned to shake the milk of frozen dairy foods. Currently, the state ranks third
help offset the operating costs of the facil- before drinking it to dissolve the line of cream that nationwide in ice-cream production.30
ity. The costs associated with starting even forms at the top of the jug, the taste of the milk has
a small on-site processing facility like the won many over.
Thickes' can be formidable to an indepen-
dent dairy farmer. Yet Francis Thicke in- The industry has also expanded into a variety of
sists, "I think that this is the time to get other dairy products including yogurt, egg nog, whip-
into specialized products," because, as ag- ping cream, half-and-half, cottage cheese, sour cream,
riculture becomes more industrialized, buttermilk, and ice cream. Products such as skim milk,
"with big farms and fewer farmers, the whey protein, caseinates, and lactose are also dried
more niches that are created." The num- into powder to be sold as ingredients to both the food
bers bear out Thicke's impression. Not and pharmaceutical industries. Ice cream manufac-
only is the nationwide market for organic
milk growing—sales increased by 24.3%
over a one-year period between 2002 and
2003, while the conventional bulk milk
market declined by 3% in the same peri-
od—but as the success of other creamer-
ies has proven, there is high demand for a
variety of locally-produced dairy items.
Since the Radiance Dairy opened, several
more small plants have started operation
in Iowa, with some even incorporating
butter-making back into the state's dairy
industry.28