120-year-old Loleta dairy fairing well amid Covid-19

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LOLETA, Ca. (KIEM)-With schools, restaurants and catered events still closed across the U.S., dairy farmers are taking a severe hit.

Curtis Holgersen is a third-generation dairyman, he says the larger farms are the one’s hurting. 

“Your restaurants and stores have stopped using milk, and schools,” Holgersen said. “So there’s too much milk.”

Causing milk prices to go down and farmers forced to dump their milk because they don’t have anywhere to take it.

Something Holgersen says in unfortunate for his fellow dairymen and women.

Seeing people hurting in his industry is hard to stomach, instead of dumping, a possible solution could be to diversify.

“They should be making more powder and more butter and cheese, and utilize that milk and put it in the stores,” he”said. “I don’t know what is going on back East, I don’t know what the whole story is but I hate to see milk go down the drain.”

Hogieville Jersey Dairy has been in business for one-hundred-and-twenty years and bigger isn’t always better according to Holgersen.

He has about 130 milking cows, enough to sustain the dairy while making a profit.

“We produce about the same amount of milk all year-round,” Holgersen said. “Some dairymen want to get more cows more milk.”

 Holgersen’s milk is delivered to Rumiano Redwood Coast in Crescent City, where it is processed into cheese.

Dustin Nickols is a fifth-generation dairy farmer and a Lolita fire firefighter and says working on a dairy is can be grueling, but it’s rewarding.

“It’s a lot of hard work but you gotta love it,” Nickols said. “500 hundred acres, I mean being out here is pure paradise here.”

During the month of May, Rumiano Redwood Coast will donate one dollar per package of their cheese sold to charitable organizations which will benefit North Coast health care professionals.

For more information click here: https://rumianocheese.com/