You’ve seen its Milky-Way trucks in Eastern WA. Key Darigold partner expanding in Pasco
A Northwest trucking company known for its “Milky-Way” tanker trucks with cartoon cows is expanding in Pasco to support its long-time customer, Darigold Inc.
Lynden Transportation Inc., based in Seattle, will build a trucking facility on nearly 15 acres in Reimann Industrial Center along Railroad Avenue in the Port of Pasco under terms of a land sale approved this week.
The property borders the site where Darigold is building a $600+ million milk processing plant.
LTI has hauled milk between Darigold facilities and member dairies for 75 years.
Opening soon-ish
A Darigold spokesman confirmed the plant is expected to begin operations in the first half of 2025. When fully operational, Darigold will process milk from 100 local dairies into infant formula-quality milk and protein powder as well as butter.
LTI began looking for property suitably close to Darigold more than three years ago. The neighboring property only recently became available.
LTI President Eric Badger said it suits the company’s need to be near Darigold’s newest, most advanced facility. It also offers the potential to use a nearby rail network to expand into commodities it doesn’t currently transport.
“We’re intrigued,” he told the Pasco port commission at its Dec. 9 business session, where commissioners voted 3-0 to to sell the land for about $2.2 million.
Echoes of Sunnyside
LTI will design the facility once the land deal is final and expects to break ground next fall. The project will echo LTI’s existing set up in Sunnyside, where it supports another Darigold plant.
LTI employs 160 in administrative and operations offices, a maintenance facility, cleaning facility and a fuel island in Sunnyside, about 56 miles from Pasco. Most employees are drivers and mechanics, Badger said.
The company has a small Pasco operation on land it leases near the Tri-Cities Airport. That will move into the new facility when it’s ready, Badger said.
The LTI station on Travel Plaza Way supports trucks that collect milk from area dairies.
It isn’t big enough to efficiently handle the volumes associated with the Pasco plant — 8 million pounds per day or about 930,000 gallons.
Two years and counting
Darigold broke ground on its state-of-the-art Pasco processing facility in September 2022 on 150 acres in the Reimann industrial park.
The port bought the former Balcom and Moe farm site in north Pasco in 2019 and converted it into an industrial zone suited to manufacturing. It is named for the late Ron Reimann, a farmer, water rights advocate and port commissioner who died in 2017.
Railroad Avenue, which serves the property, is being upgraded to support the heavy new demand from trucks, port officials said.
Darigold’s parent is the Northwest Dairy Association, a cooperative representing 300 family-owned dairies in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.
It sells milk, creams, cheeses, butter, yogurt, ice cream, sour cream, cottage cheese and other dairy products domestically and in foreign markets, notably Mexico and China.
Milky-Way is a division of LTI that provides bulk milk hauling services.
The parent company provides a variety of transportation services and was in the news in November for carrying the 2024 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree from Alaska to the nation’s capitol by barge and by truck.
This story was originally published December 11, 2024 at 7:00 AM with the headline "You’ve seen its Milky-Way trucks in Eastern WA. Key Darigold partner expanding in Pasco."