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The Darigold Dairy Fair in Sunnyside – Short Hops

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The first in a series of short day trips you can take around the Yakima Valley that won't totally destroy your gas budget.

After dealing with a bit of cabin fever this winter, you and your family may want to get out and about this spring. The Darigold Dairy Fair and Cheese Factory Tours in Sunnyside may fit the bill.

The factory is easily accessable off of I-82 at 400 Alexander Road. While it's not quite on the same level as the gold standard of Northwest cheese tours, the Tillamook factory in Oregon, it is interesting.

After viewing a short video about Darigold plants and products, you head upstairs to view the cheesemaking floor through large windows. You get to see the huge tanks where milk is turned into curds and whey, with easy to read signage about the cheese making process. You maybe surprised to find out this factory is responsible for 5% of all cheese made in the United States!

After the free, self-guided tour, you can sample cheeses made in the factory and cheese curds, also known as "squeeky cheese". Their deli has a  selection of soups and sandwiches, ice cream, and a huge selection of dairy products for sale. They have ample indoor and outdoor seating. They also carry quite a few Northwest gourmet food products and souvenirs.

One note: If you have small children, the gift shop's loaded with toys. Be prepared.

The tour did hold my hold my five year old's attention, as it doesn't take long.

Darigold Dairy Fair 400 Alexander Rd. Sunnyside, WA  98944 509-837-4321 Open Daily

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Darigold plant in Sunnyside celebrates expansion

by Bridget Chapman

SUNNYSIDE, Wash. — Several community members toured the Darigold plant in Sunnyside on Wednesday in celebration of its recent expansion.

The project allows the plant to process an extra 3.5 million pounds of milk per day, which is nearly a 70 percent increase.

Nonfat powdered milk is now being processed in a "high care" environment with higher-level nutrition applications.

"We'll be able to enter into markets which currently are not open to us," said Scott Burleson, senior vice president of operations at Darigold.

They'll also be able to keep more milk local from the 50 odd dairy farms nearby.

"It's very important to us to keep it local," said Burleson. "Anything we can do to reduce miles and distance we have to haul is a benefit."

In the past, they had to send out the milk to be processed. Now they have more room to do it at home, so truck trips can focus on sending out finished products instead.

Both employees and machines assist in the milk drying and packaging processes. Managers say the expansion increased jobs at the plant by over a quarter. The plant now employs a total of 177 workers.

"It's a great accomplishment and we're just excited you're here to celebrate with us," said NDA/Darigold board chairman Leroy Plagerman during Wednesday's event.

The Sunnyside plant's been around since 1991 and also produces cheese, whey powder and whey protein concentrate. It covers 20 acres of land.

Darigold hosts commemorative groundbreaking for Washington facility

The $600m facility is slated to open in early 2024 and will process approximately 8 million pounds of milk per day..

Darigold Inc. hosted a commemorative groundbreaking ceremony at the site of its future Pasco production facility. The $600 million facility is slated to open in early 2024 and will process approximately 8 million pounds of milk per day when fully operational from more than 100 dairy farms in surrounding communities. 

“The Pasco project represents our third major capital investment in as many years, the largest investment in our co-op’s 104-year-history, and a significant step in an ongoing strategy to expand and modernize Darigold,” said Joe Coote, the co-op’s chief executive officer. “We are a beloved heritage brand with deep roots in Washington and around the Pacific Northwest, but there’s still considerable opportunity for us to leverage industry growth – here at home and around the world – to become a top-tier global dairy producer. This facility will play an important role in helping us achieve that vision.”

The Pasco facility will be outfitted with two specialized milk dryers and two packaging lines for powdered milk products (or what the dairy industry calls “premium proteins”), two butter churns, two bulk butter packaging lines (for commercial and institutional customers), and five consumer butter packaging lines.

When fully operational, the facility will have the capacity to produce some 175 million pounds of butter per year, and nearly 280 million pounds of powdered milk products annually, including products that meet the highest industry specifications for use in the most sensitive applications such as infant formula. The facility’s proximity to rail lines and global shipping ports will help the co-op realize transportation efficiencies for products going to both domestic and global customers.

“The growth of the dairy sector both domestically and internationally presents an opportunity for our dairy farmers,” explained Allan Huttema, chairman of Darigold’s board of directors and operator of Almar Dairy in Parma, Idaho. “Dairy farmers in the Pacific Northwest have a unique opportunity to benefit from global demand for dairy, which is rising considerably faster than it is domestically. This region is ideally suited to producing high-quality, nutritious dairy and our proximity to global shipping infrastructure makes it more efficient to access international markets.”

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), demand for dairy grew at 1.6% in 2021 in the U.S., while demand for dairy exports rose by 19%. Very few countries have excess production capacity, giving U.S. dairy producers a unique opportunity to benefit from growing global demand.  

In addition to adding capacity to Darigold’s overall production capability, the new Pasco facility will incorporate a variety of innovative technologies and conservation strategies that combined could mitigate more than 300,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions per year.

The milk dryers in the new facility will include state-of-the-art dryer burner technology that significantly reduce nitrogen oxide emissions. Use of this dryer burner technology will reduce the facility’s nitrogen oxide emissions to make it one of the lowest NOx emitting milk dryer facilities in the state. The co-op is also in talks with the City of Pasco for the planned expansion of its Process Water Reuse Facility (PWRF). The expanded PWRF will treat agriculture related wastewater from local food processors using a set of anaerobic digesters, which will generate renewable natural gas (cleaned from methane) for sale in the West Coast renewable natural gas (RNG) market.

Beyond design features that support the advancement of Darigold’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitment, the facility’s location within the multimodal Port of Pasco on the Columbia River gives it access to both rail and barge facilities, creating transportation efficiencies for the co-op.

“The dairy industry continues to be a key driver of the region’s agricultural sector,” said Coote. “By adding capacity through this facility, we stand to share the bounty of Northwest dairy with more consumers at home and around the globe, and build more value for the family farmers who own our co-op. That’s something that should be easy for all of us in the PNW to stand behind.”

Darigold expects the Pasco facility to be operational by early 2024, and plans to hire some 200 employees.

The groundbreaking ceremony marks the culmination of two years of collaboration between the Port of Pasco, Darigold, and several other public and private partners.

“The Port is grateful for the efforts of everyone involved in this project, especially those of Washington State Senator Mark Schoesler and legislators from the eighth, ninth, 15th, and 16th Legislative Districts, who provided $7.5 million in state funding for critical public infrastructure to support the Darigold project,” said Vicki Gordon, president, Port of Pasco Commission. “The Federal government has also pledged support, with Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell securing a $3.6 million appropriation for railroad construction to connect the Darigold facility to the BNSF main line.”

“Here at home, the Port enjoys strong working relationships with the City of Pasco, Franklin County, and Franklin County PUD. Their teams have worked hard to help us craft a plan to deliver more than $30 million in public infrastructure,” Gordon concluded. “This will be a wonderful day for Darigold and Pasco. Darigold’s private investment delivers more than 200 high wage jobs, and the project will result in an impressive increase in state and local tax revenues to help support local schools and the community.”

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How to Host a Legendairy Event: An Overview of the Darigold Farm Tour

Over the last year, Communiqué PR has been working with Darigold, a dairy co-op, and in that time we have promoted its new naturally white cheddar cheese , planned and hosted an event for the Sunnyside Plant expansion , and shared an abundance of delicious Darigold recipes. After a year of great results highlighting the products, the company and its growth, we wanted to direct some attention to the heart of the corporation: the farmer-owners.

Darigold is a farmer-owned co-op and for those of you who don’t know what that means, the farmers that supply the milk for all Darigold products own the company. Darigold has about 500 farmer-owners, making it one of the largest co-ops in the country. It also means that at the core of Darigold is a group of farmers who are passionate about their farms, their cows and ultimately the milk they provide to consumers. As a partner to the organization, we get to see this passion and dedication firsthand and we thought it only fair that others experience it as well.

Working closely with the team at Darigold, we decided to organize a farm tour that would allow us to share a behind-the-scenes look at where it all begins, a dairy farm. As we planned the tour, there were a few things to consider.

• Who should we take on the tour? For the farm tour, we ultimately decided to invite bloggers to attend for a couple of reasons. With a farm tour, we knew that we would have to drive for at least an hour (in this case two) out of the city and with reporters on deadline, we felt bloggers would be able to work this into their schedule with more ease. Another reason we opted to go with bloggers is the relationship they have with their audience. Consumers often turn to them for suggestions, ideas and reviews on different products as if the blogger is a friend. Lastly, with a little more creative freedom than traditional outlets, we felt that the bloggers would be able to share more openly about their personal experience at the farm and how seeing this side of Darigold influenced their feelings towards the brand and its products.
• Where should we hold the tour? As I mentioned, Darigold has a lot of options when it comes to farms! Distance ultimately eliminated a large portion of the farms. The bloggers that we had invited all have children and needed to ensure that this was only a day trip. With that in mind, we still had an array of options but decided on a farm that was a reasonable distance to drive for a day trip and had experience in hosting tours. I have to admit, I’ve never hosted a farm tour, so I didn’t know what elements of a farm to show off or the order in which we should share information about the farm and how it operates. Luckily, the Coldstream Farm in Demming, Wash., had experience in hosting tours and this allowed us to lean on their experience and expertise in hosting the tour.
•   How can we ensure it’s a positive experience? We knew going into it that Coldstream Farms was going to do a wonderful job hosting the event but we wanted to ensure that we had thought of every detail. First, we held a call with Darigold, Coldstream Farms, and the team at Communiqué. On the call, Coldstream shared unique qualities about their farm, state of the art technology and important measures they take to ensure the cows’ health and happiness. With this information, we were able share with Coldstream the important messages Darigold as a company wanted to communicate with consumers and how they tied back to their efforts on the farms. Once we established the key messages and the key aspects of the farm, we built an agenda for the tour that would help manage our time and provide the bloggers with a cohesive narrative. Planning this in advance of the tour allowed for a seamless and smooth event that the bloggers enjoyed. Following the tour, we reached out to all the bloggers to ensure they had all the information they needed for their posts.

Overall, the event was a great success—and a lot of fun, not only for the bloggers but also for me! Sometimes we get caught up in the same routine and strategies, but it’s important to remember to continue thinking outside the box and developing creative ways to tell your clients’ stories. Of course, the traditional methods of outreach will continue to play an important role, but providing a unique experience for media to enjoy will give them with an opportunity to interact with the brand and share their experience with their audience.

Below are a couple of the blog posts that resulted from the tour with more to come!

• Darigold Farmalicious tour at Coldstream Farms in Deming, WA
• It’s Farmalicious! A tour of Coldstream Farms, Deming Washington

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Darigold completes $97 million expansion of Sunnyside plant

There’s a huge Milky Way in Sunnyside that few people know exists.

Each morning, truck after truck, all marked Milky Way, turn into the driveway of the Darigold Sunnyside plant, back up to the offloading pumps and by the end of the day, have off-loaded 8.7 million pounds of raw milk to the plant.

The plant opened in 1991 as a facility to process raw milk into non-fat dry milk powder. It was expanded in 1995 to add cheese and sweet whey production capabilities. It was expanded again in 1997, 2001 and 2006.

This spring Darigold expanded the plant again, adding another 35,000-sq.-feet enabling the plant to process non-fat dry milk powder in an extremely environmentally controlled atmosphere.

“This product is used for infant formulas and supplemental formulas for those from youths to the elderly who need a nutritional boost,” said Dermont Carey, executive vice-president, ingredients and global business development for Darigold.

On June 22 Darigold held a grand opening and invited dairy farmers who are members of the cooperative and the media to attend.

The recent $97 million expansion also increased the plants’ capacity from 5.2 million pounds of raw processed milk daily to 7.7 million pounds. This allows the facility to up its production of cheese, whey and non-fat dry milk substantially.

The Sunnyside facility produces yellow and white cheddar, dry salt gouda and Monterey Jack cheese. Currently its capacity is 195 million pounds a year.

“We can produce 11 43-pound blocks of cheese every minute,” Tom Rouleau, technology manager for the Sunnyside plant, said.

“The cheese is then aged and graded before packaging into smaller blocks. Most of it will end up in U.S. grocery stores and restaurant supply outlets but 15 to 20 percent will be exported, primarily to Japan,” Rouleau said.

“Indonesia is the primary importer of whey, which is used in products such as ice cream; cheese; adult and children’s nutritional supplements; and evaporated milk. They don’t have access to a lot of refrigeration so the dried whey is very useful in a lot of applications,” Carey said.

Darigold, with nearly 500 members in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana, is one of the world’s largest agricultural cooperatives.

“And Sunnyside is—if not our largest—one of our largest plants. Most of the milk is produced at dairies within 30 miles of this plant,” Rouleau said.

“Each of those trucks carry 70,000 gallons of fluid milk and we’ll get 120 or so loads a day. It takes 25 minutes to have the milk tested and unloaded, then the tanks are rinsed and sent back to a dairy,” Rouleau said, adding that each truck is washed and sanitized every 24 hours.

Darigold is an environmentally green company, said Scott Burleson, senior vice president of operations at Darigold.

The water evaporated from the milk when it’s processed into non-fat dry milk or cheese is used to wash down the plant’s equipment. Then it’s captured and pumped to the Port of Sunnyside, which uses it to water alfalfa fields.

“That alfalfa feeds the cows around here. It’s a great green circle,” Burleson said.

For more information about Darigold and the company’s products, go to www.darigold.com .

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Darigold to build new protein and butter plant in Washington state

05-Jul-2021 - Last updated on 05-Jul-2021 at 10:28 GMT

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When operational, the company said it will cut per unit emissions by 25% compared its existing baseline.

“Our producers have been at the vanguard of the dairy sector for over 100 years, constantly building on their outstanding record of sustainability and stewardship practices,” ​ said Stan Ryan, president and CEO of Darigold.

“They are proud to boost the co-op’s competitiveness with this future-forward investment in a next-generation dairy facility, preserving the legacy of nearly 350 multigenerational farms.” ​

Part of the Seattle-based organization’s wider transformation and trade-intensive growth plan, the specialized 400,000-square-foot protein and butter facility will incorporate a variety of technologies and conservation strategies that combined could mitigate more than 300,000 metric tons of CO 2 ​e per year.

Darigold will deploy anaerobic digestion technology as part of the on-site wastewater treatment strategy and use the extracted methane as a natural gas substitute, reducing fossil fuel use. This will be complemented by machinery enabling heat and energy recovery and reuse. In addition, the new infrastructure is designed to accommodate future electric vehicles, including a potential conversion of a large fleet of semi-trucks — further reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with transportation.

“We are thrilled to welcome Darigold to Pasco and the Reimann as the anchor tenant in the Port’s largest industrial park. It’s incredibly rare to attract a project of this size and scope,” ​ said Randy Hayden, the Port of Pasco’s executive director.

“Darigold’s state-of-the-art facility will use the latest technology, serve as a model of sustainability, and create a new market for our region’s ag producers.” ​

As well as investing approximately $500m in the project, Darigold is expecting to create more than 1,000 onsite and indirect supply chain and services jobs. Initial site development is expected to start in early 2022 with full commercial production targeted for late 2023 or early 2024.

Construction of the facility and the Port of Pasco agreement are contingent upon fair and equitable treatment under all new Washington state environmental legislation, which the company is currently assessing.

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22 Jul Darigold selects Tri-Cities to build $500M protein and butter plant, creating 1,200 jobs

June 30, 2021

Darigold, Inc. is building a new premium protein and butter operation which will feature a suite of state-of-the-art technologies and strategies designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. When operational, these strategies will cut per unit emissions by 25% compared to our existing baseline. The agreement with the Port of Pasco in Washington marks yet another major milestone in implementing the farmer-owned cooperative’s 2050 carbon neutral goals.

“We are thrilled to welcome Darigold to Pasco and the Reimann as the anchor tenant in the Port’s largest industrial park. It’s incredibly rare to attract a project of this size and scope,” said Randy Hayden, the Port of Pasco’s Executive Director. “Darigold’s state-of-the-art facility will use the latest technology, serve as a model of sustainability, and create a new market for our region’s ag producers.”

TRIDEC would like to congratulate Darigold and Port of Pasco on this historic announcement. This is a significant step toward building a global, premium protein and butter operation at the Reimann Industrial Center that will be a huge win for the State of Washington and the Tri-Cities region.

The cooperation of the Washington State Legislature , Washington State Department of Commerce , Port of Pasco, City of Pasco , Franklin County and Franklin PUD is a model for effective economic development on a project of this scale.

Darigold Press Release      Port of Pasco Press Release

Darigold to build $500 million Tri-Cities plant, creating 1,200 jobs

Darigold will build a $500 million processing plant in Pasco under a new deal with the Port of Pasco.

When done, the plant that will make specialized protein powder and butter, will create 200 on-site jobs and addition 1,000 support service jobs.

More than half of the 400,000-square foot facility’s products are expected to be exported, particularly to Pacific Rim countries, said the port in a news release.

Darigold picks Pasco for $500M protein and butter plant

Darigold Inc. will build its largest ever milk drying plant in Pasco, cementing the city’s status as one of the Northwest’s leading centers for food processing.

If completed,150 acres at the Port of Pasco’s future Reimann Industrial Center off Highway 395 will become home to the largest protein and butter plant of its type in North America. The 400,000-square-foot facility will cost an estimated $450 million to $500 million to construct.

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Menu for Darigold in Sunnyside, WA

• Contact: (509) 837-8000

Takeout , Delivery

Curbside pickup , wheelchair accessible entrance , dine-in , read more friendly staff quick service -->.

Darigold in Sunnyside, WA, is a popular restaurant that has earned an average rating of 4 stars. Learn more by reading what others have to say about Darigold. Want to call ahead to check how busy the restaurant is or to reserve a table? Call: (509) 837-8000 . On top of the amazing dishes, other attributes include: curbside pickup. For a similar meal experience, check out Taqueria y Antojitos Do?a Vita and Flutter Buzz Espresso as an alternative. Enjoyed your meal here? Leave a review!

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400 Alexander Rd, Sunnyside WA 98944, USA

www.darigold.com

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Show up on or before time and they get you in and out in great time about 30 minutes once in the dock. Great job everyone. ... Sunset logistics llc (Paul terry) love coming there Read more

NOT first come first serve appointment only, from what dock guy told me, pretty aggressive guy acted like a male appendage. No ... where really to park. Reviews seem to be all over the place, this was my experience. Read more

Good place to load cheese. Make sure you trailer is clean and precool 33 degrees before loading.

Arrived for delivery about one hour before my appointment time. They are fast and efficient. Gone in a few hours.

Normally a quick place in and out, but they have no problem leaving you in a Dock if it's time for them to go home.

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Darigold is open on the following days: Monday: Open 24 hours Tuesday: Open 24 hours Wednesday: Open 24 hours Thursday: Open 24 hours Friday: Open 24 hours Saturday: Closed Sunday: Open 24 hours

Does Darigold offer delivery?

Yes, Darigold offers delivery.

Darigold menu has been digitised by Sirved. The menu for Darigold may have changed since the last user update. Sirved does not guarantee prices or the availability of menu items. Customers are free to download these images, but not use these digital files (watermarked by the Sirved logo) for any commercial purpose, without prior written permission of Sirved.

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Darigold breaks ground on new production facility in Pasco, Wash.

$600 Million facility represents a key pillar in the 104-year-old co-op’s multi-year plan to expand and modernize

PASCO, Wash., September 8, 2022 – Darigold, Inc. hosted a commemorative groundbreaking ceremony today at the site of its future Pasco production facility. The $600 million facility is slated to open in early 2024 and will process approximately 8 million pounds of milk per day when fully operational from more than 100 dairy farms in surrounding communities.

“The Pasco project represents our third major capital investment in as many years, the largest investment in our co-op’s 104-year-history, and a significant step in an ongoing strategy to expand and modernize Darigold,” said Joe Coote, the co-op’s chief executive officer. “We are a beloved heritage brand with deep roots in Washington and around the Pacific Northwest, but there’s still considerable opportunity for us to leverage industry growth – here at home and around the world – to become a top-tier global dairy producer. This facility will play an important role in helping us achieve that vision.”

The Pasco facility will be outfitted with two specialized milk dryers and two packaging lines for powdered milk products (or what the dairy industry calls “premium proteins”), two butter churns, two bulk butter packaging lines (for commercial and institutional customers), and five consumer butter packaging lines.

When fully operational, the facility will have the capacity to produce some 175 million pounds of butter per year, and nearly 280 million pounds of powdered milk products annually, including products that meet the highest industry specifications for use in the most sensitive applications such as infant formula. The facility’s proximity to rail lines and global shipping ports will help the co-op realize transportation efficiencies for products going to both domestic and global customers.

“The growth of the dairy sector both domestically and internationally presents an opportunity for our dairy farmers,” explained Allan Huttema, chairman of Darigold’s board of directors and operator of Almar Dairy in Parma, Idaho. “Dairy farmers in the Pacific Northwest have a unique opportunity to benefit from global demand for dairy, which is rising considerably faster than it is domestically. This region is ideally suited to producing high-quality, nutritious dairy and our proximity to global shipping infrastructure makes it more efficient to access international markets.”

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), demand for dairy grew at 1.6% in 2021 in the U.S., while demand for dairy exports rose by 19% . Very few countries have excess production capacity, giving U.S. dairy producers a unique opportunity to benefit from growing global demand.

In addition to adding capacity to Darigold’s overall production capability, the new Pasco facility will incorporate a variety of innovative technologies and conservation strategies that combined could mitigate more than 300,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions per year.

The milk dryers in the new facility will include state-of-the-art dryer burner technology that significantly reduce nitrogen oxide emissions. Use of this dryer burner technology will reduce the facility’s nitrogen oxide emissions to make it one of the lowest NOx emitting milk dryer facilities in the state. The co-op is also in talks with the City of Pasco for the planned expansion of its Process Water Reuse Facility (PWRF). The expanded PWRF will treat agriculture related wastewater from local food processors using a set of anaerobic digesters, which will generate renewable natural gas (cleaned from methane) for sale in the West Coast renewable natural gas (RNG) market.

Beyond design features that support the advancement of Darigold’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitment, the facility’s location within the multimodal Port of Pasco on the Columbia River gives it access to both rail and barge facilities, creating transportation efficiencies for the co-op.

“The dairy industry continues to be a key driver of the region’s agricultural sector,” said Coote. “By adding capacity through this facility, we stand to share the bounty of Northwest dairy with more consumers at home and around the globe, and build more value for the family farmers who own our co-op. That’s something that should be easy for all of us in the PNW to stand behind.”

Darigold expects the Pasco facility to be operational by early 2024, and plans to hire some 200 employees.

The groundbreaking ceremony marks the culmination of two years of collaboration between the Port of Pasco, Darigold, and several other public and private partners.

“The Port is grateful for the efforts of everyone involved in this project, especially those of Washington State Senator Mark Schoesler and legislators from the eighth, ninth, 15th, and 16th Legislative Districts, who provided $7.5 million in state funding for critical public infrastructure to support the Darigold project,” said Vicki Gordon, president, Port of Pasco Commission. “The Federal government has also pledged support, with Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell securing a $3.6 million appropriation for railroad construction to connect the Darigold facility to the BNSF main line.”

“Here at home, the Port enjoys strong working relationships with the City of Pasco, Franklin County, and Franklin County PUD. Their teams have worked hard to help us craft a plan to deliver more than $30 million in public infrastructure,” Gordon continued. “This will be a wonderful day for Darigold and Pasco. Darigold’s private investment delivers more than 200 high wage jobs, and the project will result in an impressive increase in state and local tax revenues to help support local schools and the community.”

Developer for the project is the Port of Pasco. The facility was designed by architectural firm E.A. Bonelli & Associates, and Miron Construction is the builder.

About Darigold

Headquartered in Seattle, Darigold, Inc. is the marketing and processing subsidiary of Northwest Dairy Association (NDA), which is owned by more than 300 family-owned dairy farms in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. Darigold handles approximately 10 billion pounds of milk annually. Darigold produces a full line of dairy-based products for retail, foodservice, commodity, and specialty markets, and is one of the largest U.S. dairy processors. Darigold, Inc. operates 11 plants throughout the Northwest, processing high-quality milk produced by NDA farm families, and satellite offices in Mexico City, Mexico and Shanghai, China. For more information, visit darigold.com .

Contact: Chris Arnold [email protected] 206-273-8408