By Jennifer Stultz
Tri-County Tribune Editor
jstultz@cherryroad.com
Large dairy operation opens to public for ground-breaking ceremony
Blue Sky Farms owners and representatives, many from the Texas panhandle, shared future plans and progress on a large-scale dairy operation rising out of the sand plains of Edwards County. A special ground-breaking ceremony took place on-site Friday, April 26 on a rural section between Lewis and Kinsley.
“We see bright futures and blue skies ahead,” said Harry DeWitt, CEO Blue Sky Farms. “We are excited to be working with our Blue Sky team members and are committed to being a long-term part of this community.”
Blue Sky Farms CFO Josh McDonald said he was humbled by the turnout at the public ground-breaking.
“This wind and blowing sand feels just like west Texas. We really appreciate all you coming out and look forward to what is coming,” McDonald said. “Edwards County has welcomed us with open arms.”
Hundreds of area agricultural leaders, farmers, neighbors, as well as state representatives and financial lenders came to meet Blue Sky Farms leaders and find out what was going on in the middle of Edwards County amid the windswept fields and sandy roads.
Construction on an automated double-rotary dairy was visible on an entire section of Edwards County farmland, with additional fields under cultivation for silage and feed to support the coming dairy. The dairy will be a confinement operation with the cows living in huge buildings that are climate controlled.
“The cows won’t ever know it is hot and windy like this,” DeWitt said. “They will be in complete comfort at all times.”
Working together with the new Hillmar Farms Cheese plant at Dodge City and Edwards County Economic Development Director Heather Strate, McDonald said he could already hear the pulsators humming in his head for the projected 56,000 cow operation called Twin Circle Dairy.
Blue Sky Farms owns six cow dairies in Texas and a heifer-raising farm where they breed their own dairy replacements. That location is already developing heifers which will become springer cows at the Twin Circle dairy in the next six months.
Strate said there were several important factors that brought this prominent new business to the very rural area between Lewis and Kinsley.
“This was a very attractive area for them because there are no other large dairies close by, and because we are completely surrounded by corn silage production here. Food sources for the dairy cattle are readily available,” Strate said.
A large beef feedlot is in operation in the general area, but no established cattle dairies are in operation to meet milk production quotas desired by Hillmar Farms Cheese.
The Twin Circle Dairy will be a high-tech operation with the cows fitted with automatic collars to regulate their feed and milking times and needs. More than 100 employees will be needed at the Edwards County facility, almost all of them moving in from the Texas panhandle. Families with young children are among those planning to move to the area as the operation gets going.
Strate said that Kinsley residents will soon see an apartment complex under construction on the west side of town, while a hunting lodge on the east side of Kinsley is already being remodeled to create 36 beds for workers in the area. Economic growth is expected in the area.
“These are the kinds of operations we like to see coming into Kansas as this will be a big business and economic boost for these rural communities,” said Kansas Congressman Ron Estes who attended the ground-breaking and public meeting ceremony. “There’s roadwork to be done and other normal obstacles to overcome, but we are very glad to welcome this type of business to Kansas.”
