"Our neit job is to Improve the Quality of Illinois Poultry and Eggs," says Franli Gougler, left, and Jack Countiss. "We can do it and get the 



farmer more money through co-operative selling." 



Here's What We've Done 



About Helping Illinois Milk and Creann Producers Get 



Fair Prices 



EVERY nuw and then some one 

 comes alons and jars your 

 thoughts and perhaps your equa- 

 nimity with a leading queslum. 



It was such a question that prompted 

 1hi> >tory. The question is. "what has 

 tile I. A. A. done to help its member.s 

 pot a better price for their milk and 

 ))riiduce'"? 



That's a large order. You have to 

 go back and look at the record of the 

 past 15 years to aiiswrr it. Fur 

 without such an analysis you can't 

 jiiiswer it. Nor can you answer it with- 

 out visualiz-.ing just how lar^e the dairy 

 fmd produce business in this slate 

 l)ulks. and what it means in dollars 

 and cents to the owners and operators 

 of some 200.000 Illinois farms where 

 cows are milked, poultry raised, and 

 ecss gathered daily. So let's have a 

 look. 



Illinois ranks fifth as a dairy slate. 

 Last year, the census tells us. 1,1. ",0.00;) 

 cows were milked in this state. Their 

 total annual production was 4.9-19.000.- 



000 pounds of milk and 188,000.000 

 pounds of butterfat. This is an average 

 of 4.08O pounds of milk and ltj6 pounds 

 of butterfat per cow. Not a high aver- 

 age but then last year was a year of 

 high priced feed and relatively un- 

 profitable production -in the dairy busi- 

 ness. 



The farm value i>f milk last year is 

 listed at S7 1.700.1:00. That's a good deal 

 if money. Cash )ncom(> of dairy prod- 

 ucts .sold was S.')S.2f)."..000, Illinois 

 creamery butter production was <>(>.- 

 .')1I)..'!00 pounds. It retiuired more than 

 .V5 million pounds of butterfat to make 

 th;.t butter. What has the Association 

 (loin- to improve the faiTner's position 

 as a salesntan of these products? 



Since 1921 the I. A. A. has had a 

 (iairy department. And since 1!^21. I 

 believe without exception, b.avi' all the 

 MU'ce.ssful milk bargaining and dis- 

 tributing organizations, and co-oper- 

 ative creameries been established in 

 this state. 



The work of organizing Illinois milk 



;nd butterfat for sale through producer 

 co-operatives was launched by the I. 

 A. A. under the assumption that farm- 

 ers are more likely to get a fair price 

 when they centralize control and sale 

 of their commodities. 



This isn't the only reason, however. 

 Quality improvement, checking of 

 weights and tests, and advertising to 

 stimulate consumption also loom large 

 in co-operative benefits and .st-rvice. 



And so. systematically, the Ci>unty 

 Farm Bureaus and the I. A. A., work- 

 ing hand in hand, bigan setting up 

 bargaining associations primarily to 

 sell the farmers' milk to the estab- 

 lished dealers at a justified premium 

 over butterfat and condensary prices. 

 .*\t a few points, even as early as 1922 

 ;aid 1923. Covinly Farm Bureaus or- 

 uam/.cd co-oper;^tive distributing 

 plants. The Quinev co-operative is a 

 shining example <if the fact tlvii farm- 

 ers can siieeeed in the milk distribut- 

 ing business. Produeei-s ihire cin-ist- 

 eii'ly have Ix-en ni'Hing more f 'V their 

 milk than on other m.'^rket.s of similar 

 size. More recently Springfield. P"oria. 

 .lacksonville. Dan\-illo. and Ha'-risburg 

 have seen the (>stablishnienl of co-op- 

 erative dairy distributing companies. 



But most of the milk co-or)eraliv(>s 

 establ'.shed in Illinois are ef the bar- 

 gaining type. In every case the fluid 

 milk co-operative sales organizations 



10 



I. .\. \. Ki:< OKI) 



