Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) officially announced plans to build a dairy ingredients plant in Garden City, Kansas. In a ceremony at its 156-acre site in Garden City, representatives from the Cooperative were joined by Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, city and state officials and the area’s dairy farmers to break ground on the facility. The state-of-the-art plant will produce whole, skim and nonfat dry milk powder, as well as cream, and is a partnership between DFA and 12 of its member farms in Southwest Kansas.

Slated for operation by the end of 2017, the 214,000-square-foot plant, located at 330 S. Highway 83 in Garden City, will bring 60 new, full-time jobs to the area.

Once complete, the plant will receive 4 million pounds of milk a day from regional dairy farms. This will help support the industry’s continued growth in Southwest Kansas and will meet the rising demand for U.S. dairy both domestically and globally.

“We are excited to have this plant located in Garden City,” said Michael Lichte, vice president for dairy marketing and business planning at DFA. “The construction of this plant not only fits with our global ingredients strategy, but also provides a local home for DFA members’ milk in the Southwest region, which was much needed as many local farms were sending their milk to other areas of the country.”

The Garden City plant’s groundbreaking ceremony kicked off with a welcome from DFA Garden City program manager Alan McEntee as well as a presentation from the Garden City Honor Guard. Additional speakers at the ceremony included Gov. Brownback, Mayor of Garden City Janet Doll and Chairman for the Southwest Area and DFA member investor Dan Senestraro.

“Kansas has always been a key player in dairy and agriculture as a whole,” said Gov. Brownback. “With this new plant, we are literally breaking new ground for our state and strengthening Kansas’ footprint on a global scale, which is truly exciting.”