Dairy Production Systems

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History

Dairy Production Systems was founded in October 2004 by David P. Sumrall. After nearly 30 years of working and managing others in a variety of capacities within the dairy industry, the most recent being a twelve-year tenure as President and Chief Operating Officer of Aurora Dairy, Sumrall made the decision to fulfill a career-long objective of creating and owning his own dairy production company.

Sumrall joined Aurora Dairy as general manager in December 1993, hired by Marc Peperzak, founder and CEO of Aurora. As fate would have it, the seeds of a unique partnership were planted in the very early stages of this affiliation that would later and ultimately lead to the creation of DPS. Sumrall was promoted to President and Chief Operating Officer of Aurora Dairy in 1995, and became a partner in the business that same year.

In the years that ensued, Peperzak and Sumrall led Aurora Dairy through several expansion ventures that at one point grew the company to a total of seven dairy operations in six different states totaling more than 20,000 cows and 300 employees.

Sumrall, a "Southern boy" by birth and at heart, was busy in the West with dairy development and operations management, all the while keeping a watchful eye on his beloved Southeast. In the fall of 1995, the opportunity to establish a significant presence in the dairy production business in Florida and Georgia presented itself, and Sumrall and Peperzak pursued it. During this same time, Peperzak was busy growing and developing his deep interest in organic dairy production at the Aurora locations in the West.

In the years that followed, Peperzak and Sumrall became sole partners of the Aurora entities in the various states in which they operated. Peperzak allowed Sumrall the opportunity to expand his ownership in Aurora from time to time, an opportunity that Sumrall was eager to seize each time. During 2004, the two began to discuss Sumrall's desire to expand his ownership even further, and with the creation of Dairy Production Systems, that desire was realized.

Today

Today, Sumrall maintains a minority interest in Aurora Organic Dairy which currently operates organic production farms in Colorado and Texas, including a state-of-the-art bottling plant in Colorado.

Dairy Production Systems currently owns and operates four production farms. Beyond this, DPS also consults for other operations in a variety of areas related to operational management, specializing in standard operating procedures, especially as they relate to herd health, quality milk, and maximizing parlor throughput. The consulting services provided by DPS are "grass roots" in nature, and grounded in Sumrall's personal philosophy that people are the most important resource of any business, and that it is people who will ultimately determine a business' success or failure.

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