Iowa's Country View Dairy Looking To Expand Market For Its Yogurt

Business is booming for Iowa’s only on-farm yogurt store. Country View Dairy is located near Hawkeye in northeast Iowa’s Fayette County. Dave and Carolee Rapson have been milking about 150 Holsteins since 2002 when they moved to Iowa from Michigan.

Things went pretty smoothly until 2009, when milk prices hit all time lows and feed prices tripled. Dave says they realized expanding the farm wasn’t an option, so it was diversify or disappear. “We checked out ice cream, bottled milk, cheese and cheese curds. We decided on yogurt, due to it’s the fastest growing dairy product and the most value added,” Rapson said.

Before the Rapsons broke ground on a facility to process the yogurt, they did a lot of research, traveling around the country looking at other dairy operations and meeting with inspectors. Lastly, the Rapsons needed to figure out what to do with the product once it was ready for public consumption.

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