Hawaii Dairy Farms’ site looking out from the back of the valley on Kauai’s South Shore.
Hawaii Dairy Farms, a proposed 699-cow operation on the island of Kauai being funded by eBay billionaire founder Pierre Omidyar’s Honolulu investment firm Ulupono Initiative, could be operational by 2018.
The project’s draft environmental impact statement, which was recently released, said the total development costs of the South Shore dairy farm could total $9.5 million to $11.5 million. Construction could start in 2017.
Jeff Overton, principal planner for Honolulu’s Group 70 International Inc., prepared the 2,607-page draft, which was submitted to the Hawaii State Department of Health for its review.
Hawaii Dairy Farms’ plans include developing a rotational-grazing pasture system on 557 acres in Mahaulepu Valley that’s owned by America Online billionaire co-founder Steve Case’s Grove Farm. This method utilizes all of the cows’ manure as fertilizer for pasture grass to provide the primary source of nutrients, which should reduce the developer’s reliance on imported fertilizer and feed. Pasture grass will be the main source of food for the cattle, which are expected to produce about 1 million gallons of milk annually.
Hawaii Dairy Farms may expand the herd to up to 2,000 mature milking cows.
The farm, which would be developed on former sugar cane lands near the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa in Poipu, has come under criticism by some, including resort owner Kawailoa Development, which filed a lawsuit against Hawaii Dairy Farms in November 2014. Friends of Mahaulepu, a Kauai community group, filed an intent to sue Hawaii Dairy Farms in March 2015.
The group, which aims to protect the Mahaulepu Valley on Kauai’s South Shore where the project is being planned, said Hawaii Dairy Farms is “currently operating in violation of the federal Clean Water Act and threatens the survival of the precious and ecologically rich home of many threatened and endangered species.”
PBN reached out to Kawailoa Development and Friends of Mahaulepu for comment.
Source: Biz Journals
