101-year-old family dairy closes in Sonoma County after costly court fight with environmental group
For the past 101 years, the cows on [the Mulas Dairy farm] near San Pablo Bay were milked twice a day. In recent years, that meant you’d hear the loud hum of vacuum pumps running from midnight to 7 a.m. and again from noon to 7 p.m. … [Farm president Mike] Mulas was standing near a drainage ditch on the east side of his 800-acre Schellville property. The shallow stormwater trench runs through part of the farm and empties into a field, not far from a network of creeks that flow into San Pablo Bay. It was a major point of contention in a lawsuit filed over alleged water quality violations in early 2023. … For the North Bay’s struggling dairy industry, it could also be read as another signpost of the new era. In an age where some environmental groups take to the courts in higher numbers, going after farms they allege are polluting surrounding watersheds, many struggling family farms simply can’t put up a fight anymore.