GARY, Minn. — At this rural northwest Minnesota dairy, cows casually make their way onto a large rotating platform, where an employee ensures they’re properly situated for their regular milking. As the platform spins in a slow circle while the cows are milked, it’s a bit like watching a giant merry-go-round.

With milking complete, suction pieces remove themselves automatically, allowing the animals to disembark and make their way to bedding, water and food. Another group then takes their place.

The Waukon Dairy, located near Gary, Minnesota, and operated by Riverview LLP, is home to 10,500 cows. About 9,000 are milked twice a day, while the remaining 1,500 are “dry cows” waiting to give birth.

Proposed Riverview dairies near the North Dakota communities of Hillsboro and Abercrombie would be similarly operated.

“This carousel, this rotary, would be the style that you’d see in our other farms,” said Erica Boyum, a Riverview spokeswoman. “We do have some different robots or automated technology. … We’re always looking at different innovations to help with our labor needs, repetitive processes.”

In 2024, Riverview, based in Morris, Minnesota, announced its plans to build two North Dakota dairies, an ongoing process being followed by supporters — among them North Dakota livestock officials and nearby producers — as well as opponents.

The company has received permitting and is working on a timeline for the Abercrombie dairy, while it awaits permitting for the Hillsboro project.

If both farms are built, the combined 25,000 cows planned for the dairy near Hillsboro and 12,500 cows at the Abercrombie dairy would more than quadruple North Dakota’s dairy cattle population.

The state’s dairy cow numbers have declined by the tens of thousands over the past 40-some years, according to data from the United States Department of Agriculture. Statistics compiled by North Dakota State University Extension show North Dakota had 93,000 dairy cows as recently as 1980. The number dropped about 46% by the year 2000, down to 50,000. By 2023, it had fallen to 14,000.

Today, the number is somewhere around 9,000 to 9,500, said North Dakota Livestock Alliance Executive Director Amber Wood. Dairy facility numbers have fallen in corresponding fashion as well, including the 2023 closing of Prairie Farms in Bismarck.

That closure forced some remaining dairy operations to ship milk elsewhere. Wood said many transported their milk to a Pollock, South Dakota, processor, which then closed in August 2024. North Dakota only has one major dairy processor, Wood said, in Fargo – Cass Clay Creamery.

The growing distance to get dairy products to a processor has been a key factor in some North Dakota dairies shutting down, Wood said. Dairies in the west and central parts of the state have felt the strain worse, as Cass Clay sits on the eastern side of the state, and with others farther away in states like Minnesota and South Dakota.

And as farmers retire, succeeding generations have less desire to take over the business, Wood said.

For Wood, the fading numbers of cows and dairies make Riverview’s entrance into North Dakota a welcomed one.

“I think anything that can be done to try to correct the losses we have had in the milk processing industry is a good thing,” she said.

Though Riverview is entering from Minnesota, interest from in-state students and legislators signal potential growth in the industry.

At NDSU, the Dairy Research and Teaching Center has seen rising interest in dairy, said Manager Todd Molden. The center, which milks about 100 cows, does research trials and tours, teaching students about milk and other products.

The university’s dairy club is also as big as it’s ever been, Molden said. The group goes on trips to tour dairies, assists with ag in classrooms and does outreach for the dairy industry.

The center has received several renovations in the last couple of months.

“There’s a lot more interest in dairy than people might think at NDSU,” he said. “As I look at these students I can see that they’re going to be terrific leaders in the dairy industry when they get into it.”

At the state level, there’s an effort to entice more processors to come to North Dakota. Senate Bill 2342 – passed by the 2025 Legislature and signed by Gov. Kelly Armstrong – will create a value-added milk processing facility incentive program and authorize a Bank of North Dakota line of credit. In testimony favoring the bill, Greg Lardy, vice president for agriculture at NDSU, said North Dakota has been lagging behind neighboring states for decades when it comes to its livestock sector’s economic contribution.

“Livestock development is crucial to enhancing the long-term economic impact of agriculture on the state’s economy,” he said. “As North Dakota continues to look to the future, enhancing livestock development through incentivizing food processing will be critical to our overall success.”

Wood said Riverview presents an opportunity for North Dakota, as more cows could incentivize increased milk production.

“You have to have enough cows to justify milk processing infrastructure, but then you have to have milk processing in order to justify more cows,” she said. “It all needs to happen at the same time.”

Riverview is searching for a processor and won’t start building without having a destination for the milk, Boyum said. The agribusiness has other factors it considers when going through a permitting process, she said, such as access to water, if there are nearby growers who can provide silage for the cows and if the community will be supportive. In terms of water and growers, North Dakota is a good spot, Boyum believes.

Community support has come from some residents near the planned dairies. During an open house in Hillsboro, some voiced their interest in the dairy and what it could do for their community or farming business.

Sarah Hall Lovas, an agronomist, believes the dairy will be a boon, as more people will be in town for local businesses and farmers will have the opportunity to work with Riverview.

“The way I think Riverview is going to be working, they contract a lot with the local farmers for different things,” she said. “I think it’s going to really provide a lot of great opportunities for our farmers, as far as opportunities to plant some of the crops. Fertilizer is really expensive right now, and the opportunity to take manure is just huge.”

Also during the open house, Tom McNamee, a farmer, said he’s been excited about the proposed dairy since word of it started. He agreed it will give farmers more opportunities for growing silage for the cows and getting nutrients for their crops. He’s been on a tour to Waukon Dairy and he said concerned residents will be at ease when they see it.

“These guys really want to be good neighbors, from what I’ve seen,” he said.

Opponents are watching, too. A group called the Dakota Resource Council has expressed concerns about what they believe are potential environmental impacts of the dairies, such as the Abercrombie dairy’s proximity to the Red River and other local water infrastructure. The group has been focused on trying to overturn the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality’s approval of a permit for the Abercrombie dairy. On April 3, the council

hosted a public meeting

in Fargo to discuss concerns.

“These mega-large facilities will come with problems that you would not necessarily see in an 800- to 1,000-cow operation,” said Sam Wagner, lead organizer from the Dakota Resource Council, at the meeting.

In a letter to the editor published in the Grand Forks Herald and The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead, Candace Kraft, of Fargo, outlined her issues with the incoming facilities.

“Many deficiencies exist for both factory farms’ current nutrient management plans, including high potential for manure overapplication and poor timing of dung application to fields,” she wrote. “With both mega-dairies at full capacity, 321 million gallons of manure sludge containing nitrogen, phosphorus, E. Coli, parasites and other pathogens will be spread on farm fields. Private wells are especially vulnerable to groundwater contamination around mega-dairies.”

At Waukon Dairy, Boyum and Ron Visser, one of the site managers, addressed Riverview’s handling of manure and water. Boyum said all the manure at the dairy is vacuumed and separated between solid and liquid. The solid fertilizer is used for bedding for the cows — Visser said people are surprised to find it essentially has no odor. Liquid manure is sent to lagoons on the property. The lagoons are covered with synthetic tarps, said Riverview’s Martha Koehl during an open house in Hillsboro. The tarps, as well as twice-daily cleanings of the farms, help mitigate smell, she said. All of the liquid manure is sold as a fertilizer source.

Also, Riverview buys 100% of its feed for the cows.

Visser said the team does everything within its control to manage water. Waukon Dairy uses rainwater and snow melt on the site for 30% to 40% of its water source. The site has holding ponds and a retention pond, and that water is used for drinking water for the cows. However, the dairy can’t use that water for everything – for example, cooling the milk and washing requires well water. The dairy is working to raise the percentage of rainwater and runoff water it’s using, Visser said.

“We’re innovative,” he said.

Boyum said that anyone with concerns or interest in the dairies are free to reach out to Riverview for a tour of the dairy closest to them.

“I think it is very normal for people to be curious about what we’re doing or ask questions,” she said. “We want to be good neighbors.”

Visser’s wife, Kari, runs tours at the dairy and said both she and her husband grew up in the county.

“At first I was like, ‘they’re going to build a dairy up here, I’m not quite sure how that’s going to go,’” she said. “But it’s been so fun to see the community just spread their arms around it.”