From All Angles Natural Prairie Dairy is Laser Focused

Doing what’s right instead of what’s easy serves as Natural Prairie Dairy’s compass for technology adoption, management and overall direction. Donald and Cheri De Jong, the founders and co-creators of Natural Prairie Dairy, have been involved with the dairy industry for more than three decades. Starting with 900 cows in central Texas, the family slowly migrated to settle just north of Amarillo. Today, the De Jongs, along with their daughter and five nephews, oversee 30,000 milk cows and nearly 60,000 acres, along with 400 employees for Natural Prairie and their conventional farms.

Organic Transition

In the early 2000s, Donald says more of their Select Milk Producers Inc. customers were looking for organic milk. Since much of De Jongs’ High Plains ground was untilled, they decided to volunteer and venture into the organic market.

“We had nearly 7,000 acres of raw ground along with good water,” Donald says. “I knew if we could secure long-term contracts, this was a no-brainer of an opportunity.”

Admittedly, Donald says he initially did not understand all the organic rules and reasoning. However, he quickly learned because he felt the opportunity was too good to pass up.

“We were in the right place at the right time,” Cheri adds.

The long-term organic contracts proved to be successful for Natural Prairie Dairy in many ways and led to an expansion in Indiana in 2016. After the purchase of 2,400 acres and a three-year transition to become organically certified, Natural Prairie built and opened a 3,500-cow milking operation in early 2020.

“With the organic market demand on the east coast, Select Milk Producers wanted a dairy east of the Mississippi to help fill that demand,” Donald shares.

Manure Technologies

With environmental pressures of nutrient loading, runoff, odor and nuisance in their local watershed, the De Jongs knew these kinds of issues could not be ignored.

In the quest to become more carbon neutral and sustainable in their organic operation, they implemented a new management system called Varcor that converts cow manure into clean water and organic fertilizer.

The green technology is a partnership between Natural Prairie Dairy and Sedron Technologies, previously named Janicki Industries. Two Varcor systems, which work differently than a traditional dairy manure management system, were installed at Natural Prairie’s Texas and Indiana dairies.

The Varcor first removes the sand and large fiber from the slurry. The remaining stream is fed into the new system, which brings the temperature near the boiling point. The vapor is then mechanically recompressed and distilled into three products: clean water, a highly concentrated nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium (NPK) powder fertilizer and aqueous ammonia.

In addition to being an intense grazing operation during the growing season, Natural Prairie’s cows are housed in freestalls. The manure from the barns is vacuumed daily and then run through the above process.

“The manure is handled daily and on a much timelier basis than what most people are doing,” Cheri adds.

The residual water and ammonia are then transformed into vapor and once recompressed, transformed into liquids.

“You’ll end up with clean H2O water coming out one side, and the other side is an aqua ammonia, which is a mixture of about 10% ammonia and water,” Donald shares.

The clean water extracted from the manure is then used for irrigation, conserving existing well water.

“The Varcor will revolutionize animal agriculture forever, as it provides a clean water supply and natural fertilizer that’s economically viable and not dependent upon the petrochemical industry,” Donald explains.

One motivation of this system is to eliminate the need for a lagoon and remove the methane production. Natural Prairie still uses their lagoon to store the water being produced, which they use for irrigation.

This kind of technology, he says, helps mitigate the issue of unsightly and unpleasant smells that stem from lagoons by upcycling the manure into clean water and fertilizer to use back on the farm.

Another benefit of the Varcor system in drought-prone climates is acting as a standalone source of water to feed back to the cows and crops. The act of upcycling cow manure is also beneficial for the environment as it reduces greenhouse gasses produced when manure is stored in lagoons.

The weed and pathogen-free NPK powder can be applied at any time or location, Donald shares, and can be placed directly within the root structure instead of on top of fields to minimize potential runoff.

“We’ll be able to apply it in the time and place of our choosing, not because we’re forced to get rid of it,” he says.

For farmers striving to be carbon neutral, this direct application method doesn’t require a disk or plow, which opens the land to release carbon.

“We’re hoping with this fertilizer product, dairies can be on an equal footing with other no-till operations,” Donald adds.

Solid Management

“I'm proud of the investments we've made over the last 10 years,” Donald says. “We have a full robust training program, and our turnover rate is very low. Our scale allows us to specialize and that really gives us an advantage.”

From neonatal care to feed to maternity – the De Jongs say they can find people who have a passion and then match their passion to the right division of the farm.

“Our crew really loves what they do, and they excel in it,” he says. “We give them the tools to do their job successfully and then get out of their way so they can do their job.”

The De Jongs believe developing talent is essential to success. “You can be good at everything, but if you don’t have good teammates, you can’t really be first-rate.”

Future Risks & Opportunities

Not shy of taking risks, when the rewards pencil out, Select Milk Producers are known to be an innovative group. The progressive group looks at examples, such as Fair Life – a partnership with Coca Cola – and always questions, “How do we continue to get a more efficient supply chain that is closer to the consumer?” Donald shares.

While the De Jongs are also exploring future opportunities, they are unsure if it will be in Texas or elsewhere.  

“I think we have one of the greatest domestic dairy markets in the world,” Donald says. “There was a customer demand that we took advantage of to fill that need.”

Every opportunity is examined before making an investment at Natural Prairie Dairy, as they truly understand every ROI on their farm.

From monitoring cows individually to understanding their carbon footprint, the De Jong family has embraced technology and change.

“We are not running away from technology. We understand how we do things today will be completely different than a decade from now,” Donald shares. “For example, understanding how we interact with cows and how cows interact with each other will lead to better designed facilities and improved animal husbandry. AI can quickly identify unwanted behaviors.”

Doing what is right is the driving focus at Natural Prairie Dairy. They wake up with purpose and passion, as they wholeheartedly believe the dairy industry is a great business.

“Milk is one of the best nutritional packages consumers can buy. The natural protein and vitamins dairy provides are here to stay here,” Donald says. “However, dairy cannot become complacent and must understand change is here forever.”