Harvard dairy plant could have new life, just not in dairy

The dairy processing plant outside Harvard is expected to close on July 9, ending a chapter of history for the town and the region.

With its closing, McHenry County loses another milk processing facility in an area once full of them. Both tax revenue and a number of jobs will be lost unless a buyer or leaser is found, local officials said.

Area economic development officials think there may be a future for the former Dean Foods milk processing plant near Harvard. It just might not be working with milk.

“There are things that could be done” with the plant, said Jim McConoughey, president of the McHenry County Economic Development Corporation. There are conversations happening now for that building, he said.

McConoughey said the No. 1 thing going for the factory is that it is a U.S. Food and Drug Administration-qualified facility for food production.

“That allows it to have a lot of opportunities for businesses that are trying to acquire or lease” food manufacturing facilities, he said, adding that he’s “very hopeful” another company will want to buy or lease the space.

“It has had a lot of investment in it,” McConoughey said of the building. In a tight real estate market for food production facilities, there are not many buildings of its size and quality – and with FDA approval.

“It has qualities that any beverage manufacturing system would look at and specialized food processing equipment. This one is in good shape. It is a big asset,” McConoughey said.

Reuse of a plant built for dairy processing might be a hard sell but not impossible, Harvard Economic Development Corporation Executive Director Charles Eldredge said.

“McHenry County is far less a dairy community than it was when that facility was built. We are hopeful that someone will buy it and use it and bring back the jobs,” he said.

The Dean Foods’ dairy facility opened in 1927. Additions over the years increased its size and production facilities. Subsequently, dairy production has fallen off in northern Illinois.

Since its heyday, McHenry County has watched as what was once a center for dairy production change. What was once dairy farms are now new subdivisions. Farmers who had cattle for milking sold them to focus on crops.

When Eldredge was a child, he estimates McHenry County had 30,000 to 40,000 people and 350,000 dairy cows.

“There are now 300,000 people and a whole lot fewer cows. Dairy has moved elsewhere,” Eldredge said.

One of the 20 or so farms still producing milk locally is run by the Ziller family. Located just west of Huntley, Dan and Carol Ziller, and their adult children, Meredith Ziller and David Ziller, milk 50 to 60 cows twice a day.

The Zillers did not sell their milk to Dean Foods but instead sell to a co-op, Prairie Farms.

But by losing another processing facility dairy farmers will lose out on secondary markets for their products, Dan Ziller said.

“The company that ran the Harvard plant did not buy local milk, they bought on the open market,” he said.

When the Prairie Farms operation in Rockford they sell to had excess milk – more than what they could process in a timely manner – the processing facility would sell that product to Dean Foods or its successor.

“They would get on the phone to talk to local plants. That is not going to happen anymore,” he said.

If operations can’t find a market to take the excess milk, it will hurt farmers like them, Ziller said.

When Dean Foods declared bankruptcy in 2019, the Dairy Farmers of America bought its assets at auction. The U.S. Department of Justice later ordered the new owners to sell the Harvard plant, one in Massachusetts, and another in Wisconsin.

The argument to divest the three plants was that DFA would control 70% of the dairy market in northern Illinois and Wisconsin if allowed to retain the Harvard and Wisconsin locations. In New England, DFA would control 50%, according to previous reports.

A venture owned by the Borden Dairy Company and Select Milk Producers bought the plant.

Now operating as NDSM Holdings, that venture continued to sell products under the Dean Foods’ trademark and ultimately decided to close the Harvard plant.

NDSM Holdings did not say in a statement last month why it was closing the plant, located at 6303 Maxon Road, or its manufacturing plant in De Pere, Wisconsin, and an office in Franklin Park.

Many small towns had milk processing facilities up until the 1950s, Eldredge said. With improvements in technology, newer plants can process milk and dairy products much more efficiently than in the past, meaning fewer facilities are needed.

The future of the Harvard plant may be in growth areas in the food industry, such as sports drinks and dog treats, instead, he said.

“An adaptive reuse is as likely as a reuse as a milk processor,” he said.

What both the McHenry County and Harvard economic development groups want is to bring back the jobs.

“We want to make sure there are opportunities for folks to sell or lease the building to other tenants to bring people back to work,” McConoughey said.