Milk is purchased from farmers by 

 dealers for bottling and sale in local 

 markets, for manufacturing or for 

 shipment to more distant markets. 



The size of dealers varies with 

 sales ranging from a few quarts up 

 to 54,000 quarts per day. The num- 

 ber of small dealers changes from 

 year to year. 



2. Retail Bottling Plants 

 In Secondary Markets 



Dealers who purchase milk for 

 processing and sale at retail are in 

 general located close to consuming 

 centers. A high proportion of their 

 milk is sold as fluid and the rest as 

 cream, cottage cheese and skim. In 

 some cases the skim is dumped or 

 fed to livestock. As noted above, local 

 bottling plants pay producers a prem- 

 ium for milk sold locally. At the 

 time of this study, the size of the 

 premium varied from $.25 to $1.00 

 per 100 lbs. over the price paid for 

 milk shipped to the Boston Milk 

 Shed pool market. This premium pro- 

 vides a preferred market, and some 

 selection and choice of producers to 

 meet their supply requirements is 

 possible for local dealers. The dis- 

 tance from farms to dealers will vary 

 with the terrain and the density of 

 production. In Vermont, for ex- 

 ample, producers are more denselv 

 distributed than in Maine. A town or 

 city like Windsor. Vermont may 

 reach out for milk on all sides. 

 Transportation is thus minimized. In 

 Maine, however, where a market like 

 Portland is on the coast, the milk 

 supplies come some distance from 

 producing areas north and west of 

 the city. Therefore, the average miles 

 which milk travels will be greater. It 

 is to the advantage of producers to 

 ship to the nearest dealer paying the 

 highest price. 



3. Manufacturing Plants 



During certain seasons, milk in ex- 

 cess of fluid requirements provides 



the material for manufacturing 

 plants. Some cooperatives own plants 

 to manufacture cheese or process 

 dried milk in order to provide a 

 market for their members. Large 

 companies may operate cheese plants 

 in producing areas to minimize 

 transportation costs. Similarly, large 

 companies may utilize the manufact- 

 uring outlets to complement their 

 marketing policies and diversion pro- 

 grams. They play an important part 

 in reducing the impact of seasonal 

 production on the fluid milk markets 

 of New England. 



4. Country Receiving Plants 



The metropolitan areas of Massa- 

 chusetts rely on northern New Eng- 

 land a net surplus area — for 

 their milk supplies. The major pro- 

 cessors and bottling plants for milk 

 sold in these cities are located near- 

 by, where retail delivery costs can 

 be minimized. Milk produced in 

 Massachusetts is generally sold in 

 local markets. Milk for the Greater 

 Boston Marketing Area is assembled 

 from farms in Vermont, Maine and 

 New Hampshire, a considerable dis- 

 tance from the bottling plants. To 

 take advantage of reduced costs 

 possible from large lot shipments, 

 the milk is hauled from farms to 

 country receiving stations where it 

 is held for reshipment. The milk is 

 then loaded into over-the-road tank 

 trucks or rail tank cars and shipped 

 to the metropolitan areas for process- 

 ing and bottling. A company which 

 owns several manufacturing or bottl- 

 ing plants has a greater possibility of 

 adjusting supplies to each plant than 

 has a single plant which relies on 

 producers shipping from one locali- 

 ty. 



Collection of milk at country re- 

 ceiving stations before shipping to 

 plants means that the cost of main- 

 tenance of the stations is an addi- 

 tion to the assembly and transporta- 

 tion cost. The cost has been justified 



