Mountain View Dairy
Current Farmer:
Ryan and Haylee Mensonides currently lease Mountain View Dairy from the Trust to graze grass-fed beef. They also own Providence Farm in Enumclaw, Wash., where they produce milk for Organic Valley.
Project Background:
At 284-acres, Mountain View Dairy is eight times larger than the average farm in Pierce County. Surrounded by residential development and fragmented farmland, it was at high risk for conversion, and has some of the best remaining soils south of Puget Sound. The Krapf family ran a dairy operation there for decades, but it hasn’t been in production for a number of years. Our protection of Mountain View Dairy is the largest farmland conservation project ever in Pierce County.
Property Description:
Mountain View Dairy is situated below the Orting Valley, just four and a half miles south west of our focus area. The property is near the foothills of Mount Rainier in the Nisqually Watershed. 234 acres are farmable land, while the remaining 50 acres are forestland. The property has prime soils, incredible views of Mountain Rainier, and includes a historic barn, manure lagoon, irrigation well, and established drainage ditches.
Farm Products:
In the immediate future, Haylee and Ryan plan to utilize Mountain View to graze grass-feed beef and grow organic feed for their dairy cows. Long-term, the couple has dreams of diversifying their business through cheese-making, grazing livestock, agri-tourism, and more.
