Broadacre Dairy processes award-winning chocolate milk for Weigel's convenience store
Fluid milk processing facilities are generally the same. They all have rooms for milk intake, separating, homogenizing and filling. Broadacre Dairy has one building on the edge of its property that makes it unique among dairy processors: a log cabin where the owner was born.
William B. Weigel, chairman and chief executive officer of Weigel’s, was born in 1938 in that cabin, which stands on the edge of the dairy in Powell, Tenn. In 1918, Weigel’s grandfather bought 600 acres and began a truck farm. In 1931, his sons William W. Weigel, Jr. and Lynn B. Weigel bought four cows and became dairy farmers. In 1936, Broadacre was one of the first dairies in eastern Tennessee to distribute pasteurized milk.
Bill Weigel’s father, William Jr., and his uncle, Lynn B. Weigel, studied dairy science at the University of Tennessee. In 1938, they assumed operation of the dairy farm, with William in charge of marketing and farm operations and Lynn heading dairy processing. (Lynn died in 2011 at age 94.) After Bill Weigel’s father died in 1974, the dairy herd was sold and much of the acreage was subdivided for housing. But the log cabin remains and is inhabited by tenants.
In the 1960s, Bill Weigel began developing a chain of convenience stores (see related article on page 44). Broadacre Dairy processes dairy and nondairy beverages sold under the Weigel’s label. Four days a week, the production team bottles white and chocolate milk, buttermilk, juices, teas and fruit drinks, which are distributed exclusively in the 60-some Weigel’s convenience stores located in and around Knoxville. The stores also carry single-serve chocolate milk from Nestle and branded coffee and juice beverages from other processors.
Weigel’s Skim D’Lite is popular with customers. The cold bowl separating process is the reason, Weigel says. The process, performed at about 35 to 40 degrees is said to give the milk better body and flavor. Traditional separating is done at 145 degrees, and can impart a cooked flavor to milk. Broadacre is one of the few dairies that uses cold bowl separation. (Mega-processors want to extract every bit of fat possible.)
Broadacre accepts three tankers of milk every other morning from eastern Tennessee dairy farmers who belong to Dairy Farmers of America. They pledge not to use artificial growth hormones in their herds. At the receiving bay, milk flows through newly installed flow meters that help the processor track yields and shrinkage. There is a 25,000-gallon raw storage silo and a 16,000-gallon silo.
The separating, homogenizing and pasteurizing processes begin at midnight so filling can begin in the morning. Broadacre uses the high temperature/short time pasteurizing process. There are three pasteurized tanks: a 6,000-gallon tank for vitamin D whole milk; an 8,000-gallon tank for 2% milk; and a 15,000-gallon tank for skim milk. (Excess cream is sold to nearby Mayfield Dairy for its ice cream.)
Bottling milk and teas
The filling line can handle pint, quart, half-gallon and gallon formats. To cut down on filling line changes, the dairy staggers production. On Mondays and Fridays, it processes white milk in pints and quarts and chocolate milk in all formats. White milk in other formats is processed on Wednesdays, and nondairy beverages on Tuesdays. Thursday is a cleaning day. Pint and quart bottles are made of PET plastic and the signature bright yellow gallons are high-density plastic. (In the early years, Weigel’s sold milk in returnable glass bottles which were later replaced by returnable Lexan containers.)
Filled packages are inspected every 15 minutes. Samples are pulled from the line and weighed, and a technician reviews label alignment and date stamps for conformance to standards. The first three samples of each run are tested in the in-house lab.
Buttermilk is growing in popularity, as a beverage and as an ingredient in baking. Broadacre increased production to weekly (from every other week) because of demand. It processes the beverage in a 400-gallon vat.
Weigel’s 2% chocolate milk won a 1st place blue ribbon, given by the Tennessee Dairy Products Association, in conjunction with the Tennessee State Fair Fluid Milk Quality Competition. The milk competed in the whole milk category because there was not a division for 2% chocolate milk. In the mixing room, pasteurized milk, cocoa and extra-fine cane sugar are added into two 500-gallon tanks that blend the ingredients. It is this “hand crafting” rather than mechanical dispensing that makes the difference, says plant manager Douglas Rouch. Rouch says the consistency of the chocolate milk production is the result of intense pride of the man on the line overseeing the process.
Egg nog is a seasonal product made with cream, milk, sugar and natural flavors. It is a customer favorite, shipped to 15 states to fans who have moved away. As for the nondairy beverages, Broadacre brews its own tea for sweetened, sugar-free and flavored products. The dairy uses all natural flavors and granulated sugar only. Punches and lemonade are made with 10% juice. Orange juice is made with Valencia oranges.
Weigel’s signature yellow bottles are delivered to the plant on pallets every other day and staged in a room behind the filling line. The bottles are labeled and dated, then conveyed to the filling room. In another room, milk cases are washed and sanitized. In a cold room, milk is staged for loading into delivery trucks during the night shift. Drivers have three to eight stores on their routes.
Food safety
Weigel’s stores put the focus on serving the customer with first-rate products. So Broadacre insists on quality ingredients. Broadacre Dairy was one of the first in the state to include “Our farmers pledge not to use artificial growth hormones” on its packages. The on-site lab tests the raw milk on a number of measures, including antibiotics, pH and temperature. The lab also performs fresh and seven-day coliform and standard plate count tests, as well as 16-day and 19-day smell and taste tests. Milk has a 24-day shelf life. Outside agencies also perform coli tests and standard plate count checks as well as butterfat checks. The processing facility falls under the jurisdiction of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The dairy implements a milk and juice HACCP program. Other programs include foot baths at all entrances to processing rooms, drains, product tracking and case tracking. A lock-out/tag-out program is installed on equipment. Skid- and slip-resistant flooring protects workers. The dairy recently finished a drain upgrade and it is continuing with new floors throughout the plant. Soon, it will double its cooler space and load-out capabilities.
Weigel tells Dairy Foodsthat Broadacre is the smallest dairy the magazine will ever visit. That might not be the case for long. A new filler line is in the works and an additional silo is going up this year. As Weigel’s store count increases, so does the need for dairy and nondairy beverages. The plan is to add four stores a year and to increase the shelf space given to its milk (currently at two and one-half doors). Under consideration is ice cream production, something Broadacre hasn’t done since the 1950s.
If he came back to visit, grandfather William W. Weigel would recognize the log cabin and the large barn on his old farm. But he might not know the modern dairy processing firm that Broadacre Dairy has become.
At A Glance
Location: Powell, Tenn.
Interstate Milk Shippers: Plant 122. IMS ratings (January 2012) — Raw milk: 90; Enforcement: 97
History: Built in 1947. Last modernization program was 1990 to 1995
Size: 20,000 square feet
Production employees: 12
Products made: Milk (vitamin D whole, 2%, Skim D’Lite fat-free, 2% chocolate), buttermilk, egg nog, orange juice, brewed tea, fruit punch, lemonade
Formats: Dairy products are bottled in gallon, half-gallon, quart and pint containers. Nondairy beverages are bottled in half-gallons and pints.
Processing capacity: 40,000 gallons daily
Storage silos: Two raw silos, three standard tanks, three pasteurized silos, one heat-treated cream tank
Pasteurization type: High temperatue/short time
Filling lines: One. A second line is planned
Warehouse: 2,500-square-foot warehouse with 70-bay rack system. One 2,500-square-foot cooler
