5-10 IAN Ballard Dairy

 The second annual U.S. Dairy Sustainability Awards winners were recently announced by the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy® at a special ceremony in Washington, D.C. The program recognizes dairy farms and businesses of all sizes for practices that advance the industry’s commitment to healthy products, healthy communities and a healthy planet. Steve and Stacie Ballard of Ballard Family Dairy & Cheese won the award and I called Cheri Chase

Communications Director for the Idaho Dairy Products Commission. “The Ballard’s are actually a family and there are several  categories to these sustainability awards but this was about energy efficiency. The Ballard’s were looking at ways to reduce their overhead costs and eliminate propane use on their farm so they had an audit done and had management experts identify areas of savings for them. They were nominated and they received this award and it is a huge honor for the dairy industry in Idaho. Most dairy farms go back generations but this is a first generation farm. They decided they wanted to get into the dairy business and they decided they wanted to make cheese. They took classes and a leap of faith in going into the dairy business but they have been very successful, they have their own line of award winning cheeses.”