Processing - Articles - Page 21

Meet Bill Weigel, the owner of Weigel's convenience stores

April 11, 2012

As Bill Weigel navigates his Toyota Avalon down Tennessee State Highway 131 through Powell, Tenn., he points out landmarks from his boyhood. There is the house where his grandmother lived. Over there is the orchard where he went for an apple to mask the tobacco on his breath from smoking (at age 9) his homemade corncob pipe. And that’s where he boarded the bus and rode to the big city (Knoxville) all by himself before he was even 10 years old.

Broadacre Dairy processes award-winning chocolate milk for Weigel's convenience store

James Carper

April 10, 2012

Fluid milk processing facilities are generally the same. They all have rooms for milk intake, separating, homogenizing and filling. Broadacre Dairy has one building on the edge of its property that makes it unique among dairy processors: a log cabin where the owner was born.

Water management practices in dairy processing plants

The best fluid-milk plants use about one-half gallon of water per gallon of milk processed. The least efficient plants use four times that amount.

Clay Detlefsen

April 10, 2012

I have been at the International Dairy Foods Association for 22 years, and during that time water usage and wastewater discharges have always been important issues.Discussions about water in the past were usually about wastewater. Historically, municipalities added more and more houses and businesses to their sewage treatment plants, but did not upgrade the infrastructure to accommodate the increased load.

George Crave, cheesemaker, Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese, Waterloo, Wis.

March 28, 2012

George Crave of Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese talks about his career in cheesemaking.

Swiss Valley Farms' plant runs 24/7

A manufacturing facility in Luana, Iowa runs 24/7, every day of the year. Swiss Valley Farms produces Swiss-style cheeses, cream cheeses and whey powders.

James Carper

March 18, 2012

Northeastern Iowa was shaped by the glaciers and the Mississippi River, which makes up its eastern border. The landscape here defies the stereotype of Midwestern flatness. Rolling hills yield unexpected delights for motorists negotiating the winding county roads.

Swiss Valley Farms brings a sharp focus to cheesemaking

By exiting the fluid milk and cultured business to concentrate on cheese, Swiss Valley Farms CEO Don Boelens has turned the Iowa-based dairy cooperative into a nimble processor that can react quickly to customers’ requests.

James Carper

March 18, 2012

Swiss Valley Farms chief executive officer Donald A. Boelens was dealing with volatile milk prices and a collapsing export market in 2008-2009. Looking back, he says he knew there had to be a better management structure, one that could allow the company to take advantage of opportunities caused by price fluctuations and at the same time deal with the hardships.