McMINNVILLE, Ore. — The receiving station at Organic Valley’s newly rebuilt creamery in McMinnville, Ore. was quiet on a recent May afternoon as plant manager Scott Fields led a tour of the upgraded and expanded facility.

It is here, Fields explained, where trucks hauling 50,000-pound tankers of raw milk arrive daily from dairy farms across Oregon, Washington and Idaho. All that milk is then collected and stored in one of four towering steel silos.

“We can unload two trucks at the same time now, which is something we couldn’t do before,” Fields said, highlighting the station improvements.

The fate of this plant was anything but certain two years ago, after it was heavily damaged by a large fire that broke out during routine maintenance. Organic Valley officials weren’t sure if they would rebuild in the wake of the blaze, which destroyed the 25,000-square-foot main building.

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However, Organic Valley — the country’s largest farmer-owned organic cooperative — ultimately decided it would bring back the creamery in phases. Phase one started on Oct. 4, 2021, and the plant began processing milk again in May 2022.

“We built this thing in eight months,” said Mark Pfeiffer, vice president of internal operations for the Organic Valley. “I take away a lot of gratitude for our team, and certainly for the city and fire department. … Obviously, an event like that you play back like it was yesterday.”

Organic Valley acquired the McMinnville creamery, about 50 miles southwest of Portland, in 2016. Before the fire, it employed 44 people processing 4 million pounds of milk daily from co-op members to make butter and nonfat dry milk powder.

While the fire was devastating, it didn’t destroy everything, Pfeiffer said. The original milk dryer and evaporator were spared, as were two milk storage silos.

That made it more feasible to rebuild. The co-op invested $32.5 million in phase one, which includes the new receiving bay, testing laboratory and fluid milk processing room. Two additional 40,000-gallon silos were also installed, nearly doubling the plant’s capacity.

Today, the creamery has resumed making milk powder in 2,000-pound totes for large customers and is processing 2% pasteurized milk, half-and-half and cream.

As part of phase two, Pfeiffer said the co-op is still considering whether to start making butter again at the creamery. Doing so would cost an estimated $40 million to reinstall equipment and cooler storage. He expects a decision will be made by June.

“The butter segment has really changed in how people consume it,” Pfeiffer said.

Pfeiffer said McMinnville is the epicenter for receiving milk among the co-op’s 59 member-farms in the Northwest.

“Without this facility, I don’t know that there would be as much of a market,” he said.

Jeff Frank, who joined the co-op as CEO in January, was also on hand for the May 11 tour. He watched and listened as the group peeked inside the dryer and evaporator room, testing lab and pasteurization alcove, which gleamed with shiny new equipment.

“We’ve come a long way,” Frank said. “It’s exciting to see.”