September 2006 Dave and Pam Bolin Receive Ralph Keeling Award

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HEATHERSTONE ENTERPRISES cont. very visible to the public eye,” Mike says. The conservation office approached the Holschbach’s about developing a plan to direct the water run off from the dairy away from the creek. The water that comes into contact with the cows and the manure is now directed to another area where it congregates and is dispersed with a double-filter strip. The water is directed down into the earth where it is sent through screens and filters and layers of rock, gravel and sand that clean the water as it passes. After the debris left behind on the surface dries, it can be scraped up and spread on the fields for fertilizer. Equally important, provisions were made to collect the “clean water” or the run off rain water that never comes in contact with the cows. That rain water runs off the buildings into gutters and concrete waterways and is then funneled down to the creek. Cows no longer have access to the creek. The fences have been moved back from the creek and new lanes created to direct the cows to pasture away from the water. Native grasses have been planted by the creek and are prospering. “Some of these grasses act as natural filters for water runoff,” Mike explains. “Working on this plan was a good experience for us,” he added. “The conservation office uses our farm as an example of a water recovery project. We are doing our part to protect the environment, while the physical signs of the project—new gutters, white concrete runoffs and lanes, and the pastoral setting of cows grazing in a grassy, clean pasture just off the highway—add to the attractiveness of the overall operation.” What does Heatherstone like best about Swiss Valley Farms? page 6 Mike doesn’t hesitate to reply, “Ken Ley, my field rep, the milk haulers from Spensley Trucking and Gini (Korzelik), from the Dubuque quality lab who I call on to check my somatic cell counts, are my support staff. I enjoy working with these people and value their assistance.” “As a producer of quality milk, I also appreciate the effort put forth by SVF to create markets for that milk. Low fat cream cheese and 1% and non fat chocolate milk are products that suit today’s consumer demands.” Adopting modern technology has positioned this latest generation family farm to prosper into the 21 st Century while still enjoying the values and lifestyle that has attracted people to stay on the farm for the past hundred years. Swiss Valley Farms wishes them the best. Heatherstone Enterprises family members are, from left, Mike and Valerie Holschbach, son Chase and daughter Chelsea, and Valerie’s parents, Duane and Carol Jean Hegna. SWISS VALLEY FARMS DAIRYMAN
THE POWER OF BOTTLED WATER by Ron Schroder Recently a woman who works for a local radio station was standing in the bottled water section at a Hy-Vee grocery store. Another woman came up to the section and looked over the options for bottled water, and noticed Swiss Valley’s Icy Springs brand. She said “I didn’t know Swiss Valley made water. But with their name on it, you know it has to be good”. She proceeded to buy several bottles. What a great testimonial to the quality of our products and the reputation of our company! Consumers around the Midwest trust Swiss Valley to make consistently great tasting foods and beverages that they can be confident in serving to their families. That reputation will become increasingly important as our competition becomes stronger and more diverse. Particularly in the beverage category, we now have competitors coming at us from every direction. Who would have thought 20 years ago that something we can get for free from the tap would become a multi-billion dollar industry? It’s true. Bottled water is now the second best selling beverage of any kind in the U.S., behind only carbonated soft drinks. That means bottled water outsells milk, coffee, tea, beer and fruit juice. The two leading brands in the bottled water industry are from soft drinks companies, with Aquafina® from Pepsi and Dasani® from Coca-Cola. Our Icy Springs brand continues to grow, but remains a small part of our business. Focus throughout the organization is appropriately on dairy products, and it is a challenge to gain shelf space and sales when competing against large, profitable companies like Coke and Pepsi when they are pouring millions of dollars into the development of their water businesses. Bottled water is a great example of what can happen to the sales of a food or beverage when it is offered to consumers in a convenient form. Now it is considered cool for kids from grade school through college to grab bottled water as their drink of choice, whereas in the past that was never the case for the “boring” water from the tap. This is similar to what the milk industry has done with single serve milk during the past 15 years. In this challenging competitive environment, we need to continue working hard on all aspects of our business, so that we maintain our hardearned reputation. SEPTEMBER 2006 page 7
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September 2006 Dave and Pam Bolin Receive Ralph Keeling Award

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