Dairy Farm Fire Comes at Tough Time for North Bay Milk Industry

Owners and employees of the century-old dairy farm near Petaluma where a massive fire Wednesday burned more than 500 tons of hay are dealing with the damage in the midst of tough times for the North Bay's dairy industry.

Milk prices are down thanks to a global oversupply of the product, and finding quality hay in California is not easy thanks to the ongoing drought.

The fire is a huge setback for Moreda Valley Dairy, said the company's general manager, Stephanie Arend, a fifth-generation dairy farmer.

"Anytime you lose something like that it becomes a big problem for us farmers," she said.

The fire not only burned an extreme amount of hay, but it also heavily damaged the company's barn. The blaze caused an estimated $250,000 in damage, according to the Wilmar Fire Department. Arend wasn't sure how much of the damage would be covered by insurance.

The fire on Chileno Valley Road near the Sonoma-Marin County border started around 2 a.m. on Wednesday. It sent smoke into different parts of the two counties for hours, prompting local air regulators to advise people nearby to close their windows and doors.

Sonoma County fire officials announced Thursday morning that the fire appeared to be caused by "spontaneous combustion." The statement released by the county did not provide more details but did explain that things prone to spontaneous combustion -- when materials get hotter without drawing heat from their surroundings -- include oily rags, hay and other agricultural products.

Firefighters worked Wednesday and Thursday to put out the fire that heavily damaged the barn. They also removed all of the alfalfa hay from the facility, according to county fire spokesman Brennt Blaser.

Arend is now struggling to find new food for the farm's 500 cows.

"We lost quite a bit of hay, which is unfortunate because right now it's difficult to find really good hay," she said. Farmers, even before the drought, have to spend a lot of time finding, testing and bringing in hay, she said.

"Good hay means good nutrition -- happy healthy cows," Arend said. "So, we just lost out on all that big time."

The North Bay's dairy industry has been hit hard in recent years.

Conventional milk prices are the lowest they've been in a decade and those decreases are being felt in organic dairies like Moreda Valley, according to Doug Baretta, the owner/operator of Santa Rosa's Baretta Dairy and a member of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau.

The price of organic milk is down 10 to 15 percent, prompting some creameries to ask producers in the last two months to reduce their production, Baretta said.

Several dairy farms in the North Bay recently closed down, following a broader trend seen around the state. Baretta said California has lost around 500 dairies in the last three years.

Baretta knows a little of what the workers at the Moreda Valley Dairy are going through. In October of 1972 a barn fire at Baretta Dairy burned 850 tons of hay.