Troubled NE Oregon dairy farm sells to lone bidder

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – The troubled Lost Valley Farm in northeast Oregon has sold to its only bidder, and its herd has been auctioned off.

The Statesman Journal reports a federal bankruptcy judge approved the dairy farm’s sale to Canyon Farm LLC for $66.7 million earlier this month.

The sale is scheduled to close March 1. The last of the dairy’s approximately 8,360 cows were sold Tuesday.

The dairy’s owner declared bankruptcy in April 2018, forestalling an auction of his cows as part of a bank foreclosure.

The operation south of the Columbia River near Boardman was out of compliance with its wastewater permit since it opened in 2017, resulting in $200,000 in state fines for more than 200 environmental violations.

The court-appointed trustee will ensure the diary’s wastewater lagoons are emptied to an acceptable level by the end of October.