Continental Dairy Facilities Southwest, LLC Receives Prestigious Award at World Dairy Exposition

New Writer The World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin is the largest dairy focused trade show in the world. It is a world class exposition that showcases every facet of the dairy industry from showing dairy cattle to dairy product competitions, to education in dairy production methods and marketing, to environmental impact innovations. This year the exposition marked its 56th year.

The Continental Dairy Facility located in Littlefield, Texas brought home the first place trophy for the best salted butter in the competition. Not bad at all for a facility that has only been in the production of conventional butter for three years. The first two years Continental’s butter scored among the top 5 competitors. This year they took the First Place prize. Add the fact that Continental’s butter was among 2,000 products in the competition, and that of 100 possible points the Continental salted butter scored an incredible 99.5, then you have a reason to celebrate and take pride in the hard work and dedication that went into the product.

The Butter Team did indeed celebrate. COO Steve Cooper hosted a lunch catered by River Smith’s of Lubbock and every team member received a commemorative custom T-shirt. More importantly, the Butter Team enjoyed a moment in their work day to receive the recognition they earned through the dedicated performance of their jobs to the best of their ability. As Mr. Cooper said, “This is yours. You all did this, and you can be proud.”

The Littlefield facility began production in 2019 producing non-fat dry milk and cream in bulk. They started with producing bulk butter before beginning production on conventional butter. According to a February 12th article published in the Lamb County Leader-News by Victoria Byrnes,“General Manager Steve Cooper explained that Majestic Butter is recognized as a Go-Texan product because the raw materials are sourced in Texas and the butter is produced in Texas. It’s Texas milk producing Texas cream, producing Texas butter. So we basically pull the cream and churn it into butter. So, we’ve got Texas dairymen here that are producing the raw material for us to take this into butter produced here.” The plant receives on average 80 tanker trucks which contain 6,000 gallons of milk per day. The plant averages about 250 to 300 thousand pounds of butter daily.

Continental produces a European style butter which gives the butter a better body and texture as well as a good flavor. Very few producers in the United States do it that way because it is more time consuming and more expensive, but it is a better quality butter which sets the Continental product apart. The machines were purchased in Germany and Continental’s machine operators were trained on those machines by the machine manufacturers in Germany. The cream is tanked and held at a set temperature for 12 hours to get crystallization of the fat. The cream is then taken to the churn which turns it into butter. The butter is taken to a silo that creates a large ball of butter. After that step, the butter is taken to bulk operations or to the print machines. These machines create and wrap 300 sticks of butter per minute and puts the sticks in cartons. The machines are capable of producing 500 thousand pounds of butter per day.

Currently the Majestic butter is marketed by United Supermarket. Continental Dairy’s salted and unsalted butters have been branded by H E B, Kroger, Quality Check Hiland, Land O Lakes, Food Club, Moovelous, Prairie Farms, Mperfect Foods, and Best Yet.

Continental Dairy also prides itself on sustainable practices. The powdered milk which is produced in the large tower on the south end of the plant is exported to many countries as well as in the United States. The company has purchased nearby land on which cattle feed is raised. The water which is pulled during the powdered milk production is treated through their own water treatment plant and is piped to the fields for irrigation. The feed produced is then sold to dairy farmers for their cows which produce milk sold to Continental Dairy. Although the plant is largely automated, it employs 160 workers.

Continental Dairy exports around 90% of the powdered milk produced at the plant’ to North America, South America, Asia, and the Middle East. With about 70% exported to Mexico and Central America. The butter has been exported to Canada but typically stays in the United States market.