Farmers Can Run a Milk 

 Business 



(Continued from pjgc H) 



risks, 'riuil's where ue lia\e it on the 

 other fellow." 



llie 1-18 member producers were he- 

 in^ paid ■i'> cents per lb. butterfat flat 

 for all their milk. The spread between 

 the consumer and producer has been nar- 

 rowed. I'or example, you can buy a ual- 

 ion of the best pasteurized milk at the 

 dej^ots for 28 cents or, eiyht cents a 

 cjuart. The delivered price is 10 cents a 

 c|uart. One depot sells lOO to ^00 cus- 

 tomers regularly, inchuiini.; citizens of the 

 hiuh income t:roup as well as factory 

 workers. 



The youngest of the seven co-operative 

 dairies is the Decatur Producers Dairy. 

 This youthful co-operative is having 

 growini; pains common to all new busi- 

 nesses. Last December this organization 

 purchased the property and business of 

 the Hamilton Dairy ( ompany. Included 

 was a fine piece of corner property IJO' 

 X 120' on which is located a small, well 

 ccjuipped plant, and a five-room house. 

 Manager Ralph Butts reported that the 

 business has been c|uadrupled since the 

 day they started. Three modern trucks 

 deliver milk to retail and wholesale cus- 

 tomers. 



The Decatur Producers Dairy in April 

 was paying its members 'S'S cents per lb. 

 butterfat flat for milk plus premiums 

 which add two cents more. Retail milk 

 prices in Decatur are 12 cents per quart. 

 Over at Jacksonville the Producers 

 Dairy is a little older. It starte^l operat- 

 ing July 1, 1955 in a small plant locatetl 

 on a farm near Jacksonville owned by 

 Dr. Appelbee. a director. It had the 

 usual knotty problems to soKe the first 

 year. This spring the dairy purchased 

 and remodeled a Isuilding near the heart 

 of j.acksonville. The Producers now 

 have the most modern plant in the city. 

 This Dairy is unicjue in that every 

 stockholder is a l-'arm Bureau member 

 and every producer supplying it is a Farm 

 Bureau member with a heril tested for 

 tuberculosis and Bang s di.sease. 



Ray Menmng, manager, and Frwin 

 Aufdenkamp, president, reported the re- 

 cent settlement of a strike of plant work- 

 ers and drivers that closed all pasteurized 

 milk plants in the city for three days. 

 Retail milk prices are 10 cents a cjuart 

 and 30 cents a gallon. The price paiii 

 prot-lucers is practically the same paid on 

 the average by the other distributors, 

 namely, 38 cents a lb. butterfat flat. 

 President Aufdenkamp .said: "We are 

 giving honest weights and tests, and 

 director Howard -Stephenson atided "this 

 was one of the rea.sons our Dairy was 

 started." 



10 



■NOW FOR THE FIGURES!" 



Auditor C. H. Chilson At Producers Dairy, 

 Peoria. Uniform Accounting Permits Compari- 

 sons In Operating Costs. 



()\er at Springfield. Man.iger I. A. 

 "Irv" Madden, former county agricul- 

 tural adviser has been doing a man sized 

 )()b since 1925 running the Producers 

 Dairy set up by the Sangamon ( ounty 

 Farm Bureau. .Madden has led in or- 

 ganizing a number of thriving co-opera- 

 tive enterprises, but the Dairy is prob- 

 ably the biggest and most intricate one 

 of the lot. Total sales of this (ompany 

 ran nearly two-thirds of a inillion dol- 

 lars last year, including milk products, 

 ice c ream and butter. 



Mrs. Kirby In Danville Producers Milk Depot. 

 She Has 400 To 500 Customers. 



The Producers has had plenty of com- 

 petition but tod.iy it ranks first in the 

 volume of milk and all products handled 

 in the capital city. In fluid milk and in 

 ice cream it is second. Twenty trucks 

 distribute milk and dairy products in 

 Springheld, Taylorville, Lincoln and oth- 

 er cities. The last of the horses and 

 w.igons were displaced by new Divco- 

 Twin delivery trucks a few weeks .igo. 

 A total of 8,000,000 pounds of milk 

 was received by this dairy last year from 

 2^(1 producers. In addition nearly 2000 

 farmers sold cream to the Dairy from 

 which almost three cjuarters of a million 

 pouiiils of butter was manufactured. This 

 dairy has assets including plant, building, 

 and ec]uipment of approximately S27o,- 

 000. 



Retail milk prices in Springtiekl are 

 11 liC tor one c|uart, 10' )C per i|uart for 

 three or more cjuarts and -lOc a gallon. 

 The Producers Dairy pays I'i'jc per 

 pound butterfat for all milk. 



Mr. Madden a pioneer farm adviser 

 (1918) with business anil executive abil- 

 ity is a native of Stephenson County 

 where he was born '>2 years .igo. He is 

 a graduate of the State College of Agri- 

 culture (191 1 ) at Urbana. 



It was way back in 1922 when ( hris 

 I.arsen. then dairy marketing director for 

 the lAA was called in to help the Adams 

 (ounty larm Bureau and Farm Adviser 

 Frank Gougler set up the Quincy Co- 

 operative Milk Producers Association. 

 One or two of these pioneer cooperatives 

 fell by the waysule, but the (Quincy Milk 

 Producers stuck, and how. 



To make a long story short, the Co- 

 op as it IS favorably known in Quincy,' 

 reigns supreme as the big dairy of the 

 town with a record of paying close to 

 two thirds of the consumers dairy dollar 

 to the proilucer. 



The Producers (o-op Dairy, the new 

 name, had just overhauled its horses and 

 wagons so that hereafter both will navi- 

 gate on rubber, the wagons on pneu- 

 matics, and old Dobbin — who is not 

 so old -— on rubber-set shoes. A finer 

 lot of horse drawn delivery ec^uipment 

 you wont find anywhere in the country. 

 I'lie Producers has another distinction. 

 It IN the only Producers Dairy in the 

 Stale with a woman manager, Mrs. Laura 

 Johnston. She has been with the dairy 

 since it started. Mrs. Johnston not only 

 watches the books but also is up on the 

 business and sales problems. M. B. 

 "Mose ( rocker is plant superintendent 

 and the two work together with the of- 

 ficers, ilirectors and employees to make 

 an eri^iciently operated business. 



Horst ilrawn vehicles. Superintendent 

 Crocker says, are more economical than 

 trucks on the retail routes because their 



(CnniinneJ on p.iRe 7 5) 



I. A. A. RECORD 



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