290 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



WHAT THE CREAMERY RETURNS TO THE FARMER. 



E. L. WEBSTER, DAIRY DIVISION, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen-. — I am certainly very glad to be 

 able to come here and meet you and talk with you a little while about 

 dairy matters. There are a good many things about dairying many of 

 us do not know. I find the longer I live the less I know about things that 

 I thought a few years ago I knew a great deal about. As a man grows 

 older he finds some of the things he knew when younger are not alto- 

 gether as he looked at them then. 



I must apologize for reading my address this afternoon because I have 

 some figures and in order not to say what I do not want to, I have reduced 

 it to writing. 



In order to intelligently discuss the return that the farmer may ex- 

 pect from his creamery it will be necessary, first, to analyze the cost of 

 manufacture. This cost has been variously estimated at from 1% to 5c 

 per pound of butter, depending upon the size of the plant and the economy 

 used in the process of manufacture. After careful analysis of a large 

 number of records on file in the United States Department of Agriculture 

 we found the average cost of manufacture, as reported by all creameries 

 in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin, to be 2.1c per pound. In order to 

 arrive at some conclusion as to what the cost should be in a minimum 

 plant in which the overrun would pay the operating expenses, the cream- 

 ^eries were classified into those making an average of 75,000 pounds of 

 butter per year, and those averaging 150,000 pounds per year. One hun- 

 dred and thirty-eight plants averaging 75,000 pounds, made butter at 

 a cost of 2.78c per pound; 46 plants, averaging 150,000 pounds butter per 

 year, made butter at a cost of 1.88c. As no attempt was made to select 

 plants particularly well managed, these averages cover everything report- 

 ing of approximately this output per year. 



There are many creameries in operation making less than 75,000 pounds 

 of butter per year, but for this discussion it was considered best to take 

 that size of plant in which 18.5 per cent overrun would be sure to pay the 

 operating expenses: 



Table No. I. 



74,062-lb. Plant— _148,125-lb. Plant— 



Buttermaker % 900 $1,000 



Package 370 740 



Coal 150 200 



Salt 40 75 



Color 10 20 



Acid 5 10 



Moisture test 5 10 



Helper 150 250 



