Sulphur Springs, TX

Milk Flows in Sulphur Springs

Dairy farmers in Sulphur Springs, Texas, are milking their businesses for all they’re worth. Literally. In one month alone, that amounted to 5.5 million gallons of milk, thanks to Brody Koon and his sons and almost 200 other family-owned dairy farms.

“The dairy industry’s been good to us,” Koon says. “We’re still able to make a living out of it.” Koon’s two sons—the third generation working the farm—graze about 550 Jerseys in pastures on 1,500 acres of flat and gently rolling land south of the town of 14,551 in Hopkins County.

“We’ve concentrated on improving our pasture program, growing roughage, and intensive grazing,” Koon says. That, along with no debt, allowed the family to weather tough times that dried up other dairy farms.

Hopkins County’s 196 dairy farms make it tops in Texas in the number of dairies. The cows, mostly Holstein, produced 43.9 million pounds of milk in December, No. 2 in the state in production. Fifteen years ago, the county had about 575 dairy farms, says Larry Spradlin, Hopkins County extension agent. Spradlin says the drop reflects the difficulty small farmers nationwide have staying efficient enough to compete with large operations.

“Now, to stay efficient, some of these guys are milking hundreds of cows. Our farmers are probably averaging 250 cows. Some are milking as many as 950, but some are right around 100,” Spradlin says. Milking more cows is just one solution. Spradlin says some farmers house their cows in barns where their feed and the environment can be totally controlled for optimum milk production.

Other farmers, like Koon, improve their hays and grasses to provide better grazing, which means more milk. “They’re grazing their cattle, letting them produce what the ground will allow them to produce,” Spradlin says. That keeps costs low.

The Koons and many other Sulphur Springs farms are second- or third-generation family businesses. Koon’s parents owned 40 acres in 1934 when his dad borrowed some money, bought 20 Jerseys, and quit his job. Koon joined the family business 10 years later. Now, his two sons run the day-to-day operations of the farm. Koon, 74, says he’s never considered getting out.

But hundreds of dairy farmers did get out. Some switched to beef, but many went to work at a variety of local industries, including a pudding maker, Kozy Shack, and Aircraft Components, which makes luxury jet interiors.

Sulphur Springs is home to Grocery Supply Co., the nation’s fifth largest grocery supply distributor, an Ocean Spray cranberry plant, dairy processing plants, and companies that make high-altitude weather balloons for NASA and concert lighting for stars such as Garth Brooks. Unemployment is only 3 percent, says Bill Elliott, Hopkins County Chamber of Commerce president.

“Hopkins County is part of a $3 million project to build an amphitheater, a Caddo Indian Village, a turn-of-the-century farm, and a cultural center at Cooper Lake,” Elliott says. The recently built lake, about 10 miles north of town, is in a 3,000-acre park offering a multitude of recreational activities.

Elliott also boasts about the new library, with a collection of 150 music boxes, and the $4.3 million restoration of the county’s 1894 courthouse on the town square. Restoration of the red sandstone and pink granite Romanesque Revival structure should be finished by July 2002.

“We plan to restore it to about the 1900s,” says Judge Cletis Millsap. “We want to make it structurally as authentic as possible. The important thing about the courthouses is what they represent. They were a center of activity. We’re pretty proud of this courthouse.”

As proud as the Koons are of their success at dairy farming.

Jan Nierling is a freelance writer and editor living in Bixby, Okla.

Upload Your Own Stories, Photos and Videos

Every week, American Profile magazine brings you stories that celebrate the people and places that make America great. Now we want to hear your stories and see your photos, videos and even audio.

 Start Uploading Now!

 

Discuss this Article