Drumgoon Dairy of Lake Norden, South Dakota hosted an open house on Saturday to celebrate the expansion of their facility and ten years of operating in the U.S. The owners, Rodney and Dorothy Elliott, came from Ireland in 2006 to grow their business.
Elliott says he responded to an ad stating South Dakota was looking for dairies. However, they would look at several other states and countries before settling on South Dakota.
He says they started with 1,400 cows on a quarter of land and have just recently added a second milking facility, which is a double-30 herringbone and more than doubles their size.
Drumgoon Dairy also raises nearly 4000 three-way crossbred replacements annually and employs 50 people. More than 600 people attended the event, which was also hosted by Ag United.