In coastal Tillamook County, known as "the
land of cheese, trees, and ocean breeze", dairy farmers are accustomed to
long hours and hard work. Most of the 150 dairy farms that make up
the creamery association are family operations. With approximately
26,150 cows, they outnumber people in this pastoral county, where lush pastures
watered annually by 90 inches of rainfall supply the 200 pounds of grass
that each dairy cow consumes in a day. Since the creamery association
was founded in 1909 as a dairymen's cooperative, it has grown to produce
more than 78 million pounds of cheese annually, along with other products.
The flood of 1996 hit the dairy farmers very hard, when more
than 450 cows drowned. Many farmers have had to work overtime to recover
their losses.
