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Dairy products on display at McDonald's Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Agri News staff writer
ROCHESTER, Minn. -- There's a special addition to a McDonald's drive-thu menu this month: A picture of the Kiese family, dairy farmers from Lewiston.
The Kieses were featured speakers at a tour June 9 at the Broadway Avenue McDonald's in Rochester. The purpose of the event, during Dairy Month, was to showcase the partnerships between McDonald's, local producers and Kemps, a dairy product manufacturer and marketer. Those partnerships translate to quality ingredients for its customers, McDonald's says. City employees and members of the media attended.
"We really care about the food we purchase," said Jennie Drysdale, training manager for Courtesy Corporation. The corporation owns and operates 39 McDonald's restaurants in southeast Minnesota, western Wisconsin and Decorah, Iowa.
Courtesy Corporation buys its milk from Kemps in Rochester, which receives milk from farmers in an 80-mile radius, including the Kiese family.
That was a surprise to John Kiese. He didn't know milk from his herd was sold to consumers so close to his farm until Kemps asked him to speak at the event. He was joined by his wife, Jenny, son, Jake, 13, and daughter, Ellie, 10.
He spoke about their dairy farm, which has been owned by his family since 1873. He bought it in 1993. They have 150 cows, of which 120 head are milking, plus they have 110 replacement heifers. Each of their cows produce about 65-70 pounds of milk per day. Cow health and cleanliness are priorities on their farm.
According to information provided on the tour, McDonald's spends more than $100 million each year to buy ingredients from Minnesota producers: $56 million on beef, $13 million on cheese, $8 million on pork, $14 million on milk, $12 million on flour, $3 million on fish, $2 million on soybeans and $15 million on potatoes for those world-famous French fries.
"I had no idea how much was local," Kiese said.
Thanks to new McCafe espresso coffees, Kemps in Rochester is selling 900,000 gallons of whole and non-fat milk each year to McDonald's in addition to 34 million eight-ounce milk jugs. It usually takes less than a week for milk to leave the farm and get to McDonald's customers. On average, milk brought to the Kemps plant is bottled within two hours.
"A lot of consumers don't think they can go to McDonald's and get milk (fresh) off the farm," said Rachel Kyllo, vice president of marketing for Kemps. "...Fresher milk tastes better."
The tour gave a behind-the-counter glimpse of McDonald's, including the drive-thu system, different stations where meals are prepared, security measures and record keeping systems.
Jake and Ellie Kiese made Big Macs. The goal for McDonald's employees is to make the burger in 35 seconds, said Jake, but it took him about two minutes. It didn't take him that much longer to eat it afterward.
Kevin Connelly of Byron also spoke on behalf of the Midwest Dairy Association. Dairy farmers care about their land, animals and the environment, he said, adding that the state's dairy industry, with 4,700 farms, contributes to the local economy and proudly produces a healthy product. |
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