DFA achieves milestone

FALLON --Two 70,000-gallon vertical insulated raw milk tanks - both measuring 90 feet in length - were moved Tuesday afternoon to their new home at the Dairy Farmers of America's Quail Hollow Milk Powder Plant in Fallon.

Trucks transported the two silos from Fernley, where they were constructed at Feldmeier Equipment, on a route to the facility in the New River Business Park.

Tuesday marked a special occasion, according to Wesley Clark, facility manager for the Quail Hollow Milk Powder Plant.

"This is what we call one of our milestones," Clark said, adding that erection of the silos was actually two weeks ahead of schedule.

"We lost some time because of bad weather (in December), but we were able to get in some extra work to get all caught up."

DFA's ingredient manufacturing facility - billed as the first of its kind in the Western Hemisphere - is projected to be "running milk by the fourth quarter of the year," Clark said.

The plant's next big milestone, Clark added, will be the scheduled setting of the dryer cone in April.

"We're excited to be here," Clark said. "It's a big project; very exciting and very interesting. It's good for the community, for the group of contractors from the area and for the production work force, and it's going to be a good impact on the farmers."

DFA reports the plant will be equipped to process 2 million pounds of raw milk daily and, at full capacity, will produce 90 million pounds of dried dairy ingredients annually for customers in the U.S. and worldwide.