THE UNIVERSITY OF MARY KANSAS
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2009
NEWS
3A
BUSINESS
Chance Dibden/ARMAN
Tim Iwig, operator of Iwig Dairy Farm, milks a cow in the milking barn Monday afternoon. Interest in Iwig Family Dairy's product has jumped in the week since Iwig announced that he'd be selling shares of the company to ward off foreclosure.
Local dairy warding off foreclosure
BY JUSTIN LEVERETT
jleverett@kansan.com
A local dairy farm fought to save itself from foreclosure last week by offering to sell $1,000 shares of the company to its customers.
The Iwig Family Dairy, located just outside Topeka in Tecumseh, sells milk exclusively in glass jugs. The milk is available only at Dillon's, Hy-Vee and the Community Mercantile in Lawrence.
Iwig said about 60 people offered to purchase shares in the company, far surpassing the $40,000 the business needed.
But the farm is not out of danger yet. The government's Farm Service Agency is reluctant to renew its guarantee of the farm's loans because it has historically failed to make a profit. Until the agency approves this guarantee, Tim Iwig, the farm's owner, cannot accept his customers' offers to purchase shares.
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Leverett at twitter.
com/schmendric.
The farm opened in 2004, and during the first four years of its existence, construction costs kept it from earning a profit, despite consistently rising sales. In 2008, the farm had its first profitable quarter
Then the economic recession hit, and when gas prices rose, people conserved their money by cutting down on premium-quality milk. Iwg Family Dairy's milk is more expensive than national brands because of the farms' small size and because of the glass containers, which the Iwigs said made the milk
taste better.
"We had high-priced grain in '08, record-high feed prices, record-high fuel, along with decreased sales volume. And when I thought that we might be getting ready to pull out of it, the milk price crashed," he said.
Alison King, Lawrence senior, said she bought a jug of lwig milk recently because she heard the farm was having trouble and because she enjoys the taste.
Iwig Family Dairy lost a third of its business that year.
"It's the difference between conventionally produced milk on a large dairy farm and a smaller operation," he said. "Theirs is a lot sweeter."
To win the Farm Service Agency's guarantee, Iwig has been working with a consultant to increase the farm's profitability. He plans to start selling milk in plastic as well as glass jugs. Milk in plastic jugs will cost less because the packaging is less
expensive. He also plans to open the farm to tours by local schools and change a corn patch on the property into a corn maze.
David Nole, assistant director of the Topeka Boy Scouts of America, was one of the customers who offered to buy a share of the farm. He said he had purchased milk for his family from the Iwig Family Dairy since the farm opened.
"Supporting a local dairy, supporting a local producer of any sort that's growing something natural, is just the right thing to do," he said. "I think it'd be a loss to our community if we didn't have the Iwigs there."
Despite its continued financial troubles, twig said he thought the farm would survive in the long run.
"As far as I can see, there's a path,
and there's a light at the end of the
path," he said.
Edited by Sarah Kelly
CRIME
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Michael Robie, left, sits with his lawyer James Moir in Grafton County Superior court in North Havenville, N.H. Monday. Robie pleaded guilty Monday for his role in a plot to murder Christopher Gray, a developmentally disabled Wal-Mart cashier last year.
Man pleads guilty to planning murder
BY JOHN CURRAN Associated Press
NORTHHAVERHILL,N.H.— A New Hampshire man charged in the murder of a developmentally disabled Wal-Mart cashier
whod been flipping with his girlfriend pleaded guilty Monday to lesser charges, admitting he helped orchestrate the attack from his jail cell.
a low IQ, was stabbed to death in October 2008 after being lured to the home of Robie's girlfriend, Amber Talbot.
"I think that every single one of them stuck that knife in him."
Talbot, Timothy Smith and Anthony Howe all pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy and
Michael Robie, 19, who
Shirley Kingsbury Victim's aunt
became enraged after being told of the advances by victim Christopher Gray, was captured on recorded telephone calls plotting to avenge them. Gray, who had attention deficit disorder and
second-degree murder, acknowledging their roles in the killing.
"I think that every single one of them stuck that knife in him," said a tearful Shirley Kingsbury, Gray's aunt, in an interview outside court.
new outside court Monday. "Not any one of them should have gotten an lesser than life, if not more. They don't seem to value what a human life is, or they never would have committed something so brutal and violent."