By Dairy Today editors

Alpenrose Dairy, a family-owned, Portland-based company, has been named one of Oregon's most admired companies, the Portland Business Journal announced earlier this month.

The dairy earned the No. 1 spot in the Agriculture and Forest Products category of the annual awards. Nike Inc. received the Across-All-Industries Award.

"We are truly honored to receive the award,” said Rod Birkland and Carl Cadonau Jr., co- presidents of Alpenrose Dairy. "We owe a great deal of thanks to our dedicated employees. They work hard to ensure our customers receive the highest quality dairy products that nature can provide. We are delighted to celebrate this award with them.”

This year, the Portland newspaper conducted a phone survey of more than 1,800 CEOs and top-level managers across Oregon to learn their opinions of the state's greatest companies. Companies were ranked on attributes such as innovation, quality of products and services, customer service and community involvement.

The awards go to the top 10 most admired businesses in eight industry categories including: agriculture and forest products; technology; professional services; commercial real estate; health care; nonprofits; financial services; and traditional manufacturing.

Alpenrose Dairy has produced a full line of dairy products since 1916. In 2007, the company added Certified Organic Milk to its product line of fluid milk, cottage cheese, sour cream, eggnog and ice cream. In 2005, it stopped accepting milk produced with bovine growth hormones. Visit the company at www.alpenrose.com.

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