It was cold the morning of December 29, 2021. It certainly wasn’t the coldest Christmas week the South Valley has seen, with light rains falling on and off that day. The chill could have been much worse, and for Tulare dairywoman Janie DeRaadt, it was.
It’s a day that will be frozen in time for her and her husband.
“I’m exhausted,” she said. “I’ve been up since 4 a.m.”
The DeRaadts were facing the worst possible scenario for a dairy that has been in the hands of the same family in Tulare County for generations, one that dozens of other small dairies are staring in the eye: They were closing down the ranch permanently; their herd was heading east without them.
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