Kansas Dairy Signs Deal with Dannon

From The Kansas City Star

An agreement between a Kansas dairy company and yogurt-maker Dannon Co. could be a first step toward making Kansas a major player in the nation’s dairy industry, Gov. Sam Brownback said.

Under the agreement announced Thursday in Rexford, McCarty Dairy will be the sole supplier of milk to Dannon’s yogurt factory in Fort Worth, Texas.

The McCarty family milks nearly 7,200 cows daily at farms in Rexford, Bird City and Scott City. A processing plant in Rexford gets milk from the three dairies, pasteurizes it and strips out water. The dried milk will be used by Dannon for its yogurt.

When they settled near Rexford 12 years ago from Pennsylvania, the McCartys were milking 750 cows, family patriarch Tom McCarty told about 150 people, including Brownback and Dannon officials.

“It’s the only one of its kind in North America,” he said of the deal with Dannon, “which I didn’t even know until the other day.”

Read the complete story at The Kansas City Star