The Appel family is expanding their cheese making facility to meet demand
The Appel family has been producing high quality milk and cheese from their Ferndale farm for more than 60 years. Brothers Rich, John and Gerald, along with their extended family and 30 employees, work on the dairy farm, creamery or in the farm’s popular cheese shop and café. The Appel family produces eleven farmstead artisanal cheese varieties, several sold only in Whatcom County while other cheeses are distributed nationwide.
New dairy farm equipment ensures precision feeding using software that provides nutritionally balanced feed delivery
Dairy producers are applying sophisticated approaches to develop dairy cow feeding formulas that provide the appropriate amount of protein, nitrogen and phosphorus to increase milk production while reducing nutrients in manure and related emissions.
Lynne Rainey Wheeler inspects feed developed by animal nutritionist Dr. Gale DeJong, DVM, during one of his regular visits to Coldstream Farms.
Over the years, sisters Lynne and Laura Rainey have worked every job on their mom and dad’s evolving Rainey family dairy, now a 1,000-acre operation near Deming renamed Coldstream Farms – and they are still at it. Since 1978 the Rainey family has produced high-quality Darigold milk by taking great care of their cows while maintaining high standards for worker safety, training and manure management/ dairy nutrient planning. Although the farm has grown over the years, it remains a family farm, now with 23 full time employees.
While Laura Rainey Smith and her mother, Vickie Rainey, manage the business side, son-in-law Galen Smith has taken a larger management role with family patriarch/founder Jeff Rainey, who works to apply best farming practices. Galen’s brother, Brad Smith, manages the farm’s Dairy Nutrient Management Plan and all the required record-keeping.
Lynne Rainey Wheeler performs a “mixed bag” of work on the farm. She invests most of her time working the “cow side” with a veterinarian, an animal nutritionist and employees to keep their 1,300 dairy cows healthy and productive – while emitting less manure with nutritious feed formulas that are prepared every day in a computerized mixer. The farm’s new Trioliet Stationary Mixer can provide various feed formulas to keep their cows healthy and productive while emitting less.
“I work directly with our veterinarian on everything from new born babies to milking protocols and pregnancy checks,” she says. “I have a wonderful relationship with our vet as we work with individual animals and look at the herd as a whole to prevent disease and make certain our herd is moving in the right direction.”
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