Mayor to celebrate 75 years of Plains Dairy

During the past 75 years, Plains Dairy has grown from milking 70 cows to processing 2.5 million gallons of drinks per month, and Amarillo Mayor Debra McCartt will salute the company today.

About two-thirds of the Amarillo company's production is milk. It also produces orange juice, tea, punch and water, Vice President Greg Meador said.

The company, now owned by Affiliated Foods, delivers the drinks across the Panhandle, and its parent moves the products throughout West Texas, New Mexico and parts of Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas and Arizona.

All the bottling is done in Amarillo, in a group of buildings at North Third Avenue and Fillmore Street.

More than 80 percent of the milk comes from dairies within 75 miles of Amarillo, a much smaller area than in the past because of the expansion of the dairy industry in the region.

"It's good to have the local farmer here and help them that way," Meador said.

The ceremony today will be at 10 a.m. in the Gilliland Education Room of the Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts, 500 S. Buchanan St.

-Staff writer Kevin Welch