Ag Secretary Northey holds town meeting, tours updated WW Homestead Dairy

by Bob Beach

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey visited Waukon Wednesday, July 11, holding a town hall meeting at the Farm Bureau building and taking a tour of the facilities at WW Homestead Dairy on Rossville Road.
WW Homestead Dairy owners Tom and Paul Weighner and Tom Walleser told Northey that their best sellers are cheese curds and ice cream. They pointed out a new ice-cream machine, which has a much larger capacity than the previous machine, and faster freezing and a variable-speed drive that result in a higher quality product. A new flash freezer recently installed at the facility operates at 25 degrees below zero and also contributes to a better quality product.
The owners also told Northey about a new contract to provide milk to Luther College in Decorah, which necessitated the purchase of a special machine to package the milk in five-gallon bags.
WW Homestead dairy is also prepared to begin production of cheddar, colby and other cheeses, the owners said, which should begin within the next month. Northey enjoyed samples of fresh strawberry ice cream during his visit, as well as non-homogenized skim milk, which the owners said tastes as good as homogenized two-percent milk.

TOWN HALL MEETING
During his town hall meeting at the Farm Bureau building in Waukon, Northey spoke about the desperate need for rain, though he noted that other parts of the state and nation are seeing worse drought conditions than in northeast Iowa. “If we could get some rain on it, we could still have a good crop,” Northey said. He added that the threat of drought is already impacting markets for corn and soybean producers as well as livestock producers. Without a lot of rain, and soon, Northey said there is a potential for a drought as serious as was experienced in 1988.
Northey fielded several questions about ethanol, noting that the volatility of corn prices will likely have an impact on ethanol plants and that he would not be surprised to see production scaled back in light of rising corn prices. He added that the current uncertainty in the markets affects ethanol producers, corn and soybean producers and livestock producers alike. “The best thing would be rain,” Northey said.
Northey also noted volatility in international markets, but noted that China, for example, has 450 million hogs that need feed regardless of what happens with the price of corn.
Northey also said that there is a very large international market for fertilizer and that half of the nitrogen used in the United States is imported. He said that may change as natural gas prices drop, though problems with “fracking” for natural gas have resulted in some uncertainty in that market as well. If those issues could be resolved, the price of natural gas could be competitive enough to replace coal for electricity production, Northey said.