By SHELLY STRAUTZ-SPRINGBORN

Michigan Correspondent

GREENVILLE, Mich. — Foremost Farms USA intends to build a dairy processing facility on a 96-acre parcel in the industrial park in Greenville that the company recently purchased.

The move is expected to help alleviate some of the challenges facing the industry, with supply that has outpaced processing capacity in recent years.

According to a press release from Foremost Farms, the facility is planned to be operational in 12-14 months and would receive up to 6 million pounds of raw milk per day. It would initially process solids for internal use in farmer-owned production facilities in the upper Midwest and for sales to customers and to strategic alliance partners.

Its President and CEO Michael Doyle said, “Foremost Farms’ executive management and board of directors plans to strategically build this facility in Greenville in order to control our own destiny in Michigan and unify our seven-state membership. All of our members produce high-quality milk and this facility is part of the plan to optimize that value today and into the future.

“Greenville is located just 30 miles west of the center point of our member milk in Michigan. It is an ideal location for us and we look forward to moving ahead with a future dairy processing facility.

“It is our goal to continue to work with our strategic partners/alliances like we have established in the region with Michigan Milk Producers Association at Constantine, Michigan, to maximize dairy farmer investments, stabilize the regional milk market and add value for all producers in this market,” he added.

Phase one of this project would provide the base to start a dairy processing “campus” at that site. Foremost is engaged in preliminary talks with companies interested in value-added production facilities/capacity in alliance with Foremost Farms at the Greenville site.

Foremost Chair Dave Scheevel said, “Our board of directors is looking forward to seeing this project become a reality. The move effectively incorporates our Michigan member milk production into our core manufacturing business, with a path to growth and stability in the region and for all Foremost Farms members.”

The company is continuing to work with the Michigan Economic Development Corp. and other state and Greenville entities to further the project, which is contingent upon receiving approvals of local and state incentives and support, including a long-term wastewater treatment solution.

Ken Nobis, president of Michigan Milk Producers Assoc. (MMPA) in Novi, said the addition of the plant will be positive for the industry. He said production gains in recent years have been “very challenging,” with the state’s processing capacity “stretched very thin right now.”

According to a recent report from CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange Division, every year U.S. dairy farmers produce 3 billion more pounds of milk than the year before, and an additional 27 billion pounds of U.S. milk processing capacity will be needed over the next 10 years if current trends persist.

“We need processing capacity in the state,” Nobis explained. “As far as capacity, it’s going to take more than (this new plant).”

He said although Foremost has dropped out of planning to build a cheese processing plant in the state, the other interested parties are continuing discussions.

“MMPA, DFA (Dairy Farmers of America) and Glanbia are still in active negotiations to move forward on that project,” he said. “One of the things we have to do is reassess a location for it, because you try to locate a processing plant as close to the center of your milk production as you can. With Foremost out of it, that changes the balance.”

Foremost Farms is a dairy cooperative based in Wisconsin, with membership in seven states including Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Indiana and Ohio. Greenville is located in west-central Michigan and has a population of about 8,500.