Meadow Gold closes Kalispell plant

Dairy to become distribution hub

A part of Kalispell's farm history came to a close Friday as Meadow Gold Dairy shut down its production facility.

Forty-three workers affected by the closure received severance packages and benefits extensions.

The Kalispell plant will remain open as a distribution center and will employ a few workers, according to Ellen Barry, a spokeswoman for Dallas, Texas-based Dean Foods, which owns Meadow Gold.

Dean Foods said in April it was shutting down the Kalispell production facility by mid-June to make operations in Montana more efficient.

The Kalispell plant produced milk, eggnog, cottage cheese and sour cream. Kalispell's milk production will be transferred to the Meadow Gold plant in Great Falls, while production of cultured products moves to a plant in Greeley, Colo.

THE FLATHEAD Valley once was home to more than 90 dairy farms, but only two remain, operated by the Brenneman and Hedstrom families.

Joe Brenneman, who milks 100 cows, said the Meadow Gold closure in Kalispell forced him to join Country Classic Dairies, a Bozeman-based dairy cooperative, because it offers lower hauling rates.

"Had I stuck with Meadow Gold I would've had to pay freight of $3 per hundredweight," Brenneman said. With Country Classic he pays 91 cents per hundredweight.

"It's the only choice I had," he said. "Our milk used to get hauled six miles. Now it goes to Bozeman every other day."

Hedstrom Dairy, which milks about 130 cows, switched from Meadow Gold to the Country Classic (formerly Darigold) cooperative 10 years ago.

Dairies have been disappearing from the Flathead landscape through the years. By 1994 there were seven dairies operating in the county, and when Dan and Sam Leighty closed their dairy in 2001, there were just a half-dozen producers left.

After retail milk prices were deregulated in 1995, Montana dairy farmers formed a statewide milk pool and established daily production quotas. Sagging producer milk prices in recent years have made it challenging for smaller dairies to stay in business.

MEADOW Gold's Kalispell plant dates back to the early 1940s when E.G. "Brownie" Hartman started milking cows and sold the milk to Greg's Dairy on Two Mile Drive, said Hartman's widow, Marie Todd Hartman.

"Then he turned around and got some processing equipment and started bottling and it became Skyline Dairy," she said.

Hartman's son, Todd Hartman, who manages Meadow Gold's Kalispell plant, will stay on to manage the distribution facility.

"Todd's been in the dairy business practically all his adult life," Marie Hartman said.

Brownie Hartman died in 2001.

Todd Hartman said corporate policy prevented him from talking to the press. Dean Foods also won't allow photographs to be taken inside the plant, a policy that began shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Skyline Dairy took on the Meadow Gold name in 1980 when it was sold to Beatrice Foods. Dean Foods bought Meadow Gold from Beatrice Foods in 1999.

Dean Foods spokeswoman Marguerite Copel said in April that the decision to close the Kalispell dairy was a difficult one.

"This plant has been part of the family for a long time," she said.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com