April 2026
AND ANOTHER YEAR SLIPS BY
Hello everyone! Did 2025 fly by for you too? Hoping things went well for you and yours. As I enter my 4th year as manager the challenges of keeping WADHIA running smoothly have shifted. Loss of dairies along with competition have cut deeply into the budget. All of us here strive to keep costs low without a decline in service. It didnât help that in the last quarter our CombiFoss machine went down. The parts needed had to come from Denmark and was held up in customs for nearly 2 MONTHS. Farms and technicians were scrambling. After a hefty repair bill we are back on track.
Iâd like to thank our dairies for their continued patronage. Iâd also like to thank our lab and technicians for yet another year of service. Our hair is greying and our steps may be slower, but weâre still here.
Looking forward to see what 2026 holds as we meet your testing needs.
-Greg Irwin WADHIA Manager
There have been a few changes here at Washington DHIA. We have hired a new Lab Technician. Her name is Amy Lodjic. She is learning the position really quickly. The goat program is still growing. We now test 240 goat herds from 39 different states. I like to say from Alaska to Florida and from California to Maine and now Hawaii. The herds range from 1 sample to 70 samples. We processed around 150,000 samples in the lab for 2025 with 12,000 of those goat samples. In 2025 we got the Foss FT and FS up and running, so now we can test for MUN also.
As always it has been a pleasure working with everyone. Julie Barnes, Lab Manager, Goat Program Coordinator and Data Entry Coordinator
Donna Herrin
Well another year has past and not much has changed. We are still servicing scales from Hawaii to Alaska to Florida. Our numbers of meters calibrated per year has dropped a bit with many farmers putting in electronic meters and robots. We passed OC back in November 2025 once again for the year. I look forward to continuing to serve your needs in the meter shop.
-Donna Herrin, Meter Shop
Greg Irwin
Julie Barnes
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Tory Bennett Adena Head
Donna Herrin
Kristina Allman
Kelly Irwin
Amy Lodjic
Gwen Hoople
A goat herd is the new look of DHIA
Ocean Bluff Farm, Whidbey Island, is a sample of this dairy surge
By Cal Bratt
For the Lynden Tribune
The navy and white-trimmed buildings look out across sloped green pasture to what ultimately steals the attention here: the shimmering water expanse of the Strait of Juan de Fuca with a vast sky overhead.
This is Ocean Bluff Farm on the western edge of Whidbey Island. Over the last 10 years it has been Holley Stellerâs laboratory for starting up a registered goat operation. She acknowledges she is still experimenting and developing things, and with her engineerâs mind everything is planned to precision.
âI knew that this location was a very special spot,â Holley says, thinking back to when she and her husband, James, first looked at these 2.875 acres in 2010. At the time, the property needed some serious upgrading, from sealing windows and doors against the sea wind to completely redoing the fencing on the farm.
The place was built for horses. Then in 2016 the Stellers went on a transformative trip to Switzerland, where they visited a 40acre âliving museumâ of agriculture. Holley was fascinated with the goats there, their intelligence, playfulness, and productivity, and she set out to create a goat herd of her own.
The breed she chose is Nigerian Dwarf. To be registered, a doe cannot be more than 22.5 inches tall at the withers, a buck 23.5. âMy girls are working girls,â says Holley. âI want them to produce milk.â
This spring, Ocean Bluff Farm has 16 mother goats being milked and, since it is kidding season, Holley can hardly keep up with the number of spunky little ones arriving. As of April 2, there had been 36 kids born, and 10 of them had been sold already (often just as a pet).
To make soap, Holley adds lye, oil and colors to semi-frozen goatâs milk. For her goat cheese, she already has a lineup of people in nearby Coupeville eager to buy, marketed through Whidbey Island Growers.
The Stellers recently completed a new matching-décor larger barn that they hope will help Holley gain a Grade A dairy license from the state, allowing her to sell directly to the public. She already has the bulk cooling tank. She plans to produce both raw and pasteurized milk, and bottle it fluid in glass jars.
It was in 2018 that Holley first made contact with the Dairy Herd Improvement Association for the precise record-keeping on her herd that she desires. Subsequently, she and others on Whidbey Island trained to become DHIA testers for dairy goat herds, and many also are active in the Northwest All Breed Goat Club, in which Holley is treasurer.
As Washington State DHIA director Greg Irwin sees it, these dairy goat lovers have become a new surge in the organization, and he welcomes it. Burlington, WA, continues to be the base for processing, and not just for the state but for goat farmers from across the nation, he said.
2025 High ECM Official Herds
HOLSTEINS
GUERNSEYS
BROWN SWISS
CROSS BREED
2025 Whatcom County Statistical Progress Report
2025 Annual Herd Summary â High Milk Official Herds
GUERNSEYS
BROWN SWISS
CROSS BREED
Farm
DHIA Non-Member Herds
Name:
Degroot Farm
Keller Dairy
McMahan
Lenssen Dairy
Appel Farms
Natural Milk
Vanderhoef Dairy
Coldstream Farms
Hillview Dairy
Ed Bosscher
RJ VanHoof
Skagit Bay
John Mallonee
Sno Valley
Old Silvana Creamery
Valley Brothers
Kaaland Farm
Edaleen
DeLaval Dairy Service
Delaval
Jerry Vandellen
Pomeroy Dairy
Countryside Dairy
Dickinson Farms
Organic Valley Brothers
2025 Association Averages
2025 Production Queens Holsteins
Corrected Milk
2025 Production Queens- Holsteins
continued from page 16
2025 Production Queens - Holsteins
#4, Cont. CTL
2025 Production Queens - Jerseys Energy Corrected
Milk
2025 Production Queens -
Jerseys continued from page 19
LACTATION #2, Cont.
LACTATION #3
2025
Production Queens - Jerseys continued from page 20
LACTATION #4
2025 Production Queens - Guernseys Energy Corrected
Milk
LACTATION #2
LACTATION #3
2025 Production Queens - Guernseys
LACTATION #5 & Over
2025 Production Queens - Brown Swiss
Energy Corrected Milk
#2
LACTATION #3
LACTATION #4
LACTATION #5 & Over
2025 Production Queens - Crossbreeds
Energy Corrected Milk
Herd
#1, Cont.
2025 Production Queens - Crossbreeds
2025 Production Queens - Crossbreeds
continued from page 25
Whatcom County DHIA Comparative Balance Sheet â 2025
Washington State DHIA Comparative Balance Sheet â 2025
Whatcom County DHIA Statement of Income & Expenses 2025
COW RECORDS
Washington State DHIA Statement of Income & Expenses 2025
COW, GOAT, PREGNANCY RECORDS
PROFIT (LOSS*)
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