Table 28. Obstacles to the Adoption 



of Bulk Assembly of Milk, 

 as Stated by Milk Dealers Using Cans 



Percent 



100 



The institutional obstacles were 

 found in cooperatives, where mem- 

 bers control decisions through their 

 representation. A proprietary milk 

 plant may be under the management 

 of a central office where major de- 

 cisions are made, although this was 

 not found to be an obstacle. 



Financial considerations refer to 

 the investment in farm tanks and tank 

 trucks, in the event that this would 

 have to be carried by the existing 

 volume of milk sales with no pro- 

 spective change in milk prices or 

 payments to truckers for hauling. 



With regard to producer volume, 

 many of the dealers had reservations 

 about their producers' being big 

 enough to justify additional invest- 

 ments in a farm tank. Hence this 

 accent on the producers' small size 

 was only another way of mentioning 

 the financial obstacle to conversion. 



Among the dealers who saw no 

 apparent advantages in bulk assem- 

 bly were some who asembled. pro- 

 cessed, and distributed milk dailv 

 without use of a storage tank. In 

 their plants, cans were weighed and 

 then emptied directlv into the pas- 

 teurizer. 



As reported bv dealers, opinions of 

 producers using cans were 40 per 

 cent in favor of tanks and 60 percent 

 against. Can truckers were 30 per 

 cent in favor of tanks and the ma- 



jority against. This opposition repre- 

 sented the then prevailing personal 

 opinions and no doubt reflected the 

 psychic conflict created by the pro- 

 spects of new purchases and new 

 capital investment. 



3. Experiences of Dealers 

 Receiving Milk in Bulk 



Of the 31 plants receiving milk 

 from farms in tanks in 1955, only 

 two were cooperatives. The average 

 number of bulk-assembly producers 

 per plant was 24 in Vermont, 61 in 

 Maine, and 30 in New Hampshire. 

 Many of the plants had combined 

 tank and can operations: therefore 

 the above numbers do not indicate 

 the size of the plants. In Maine there 

 were proportionately fewer combined 

 operations than in Vermont and 

 New Hampshire. 



Farm bulk milk cooling tanks had 

 been in operation an average of 16 

 months at the time of interview. 



Table 29. Percentage Change in 



Dealers' Number of Producers 



Since Dealer;.' Adoption of 



Tank Truck Assembly 



Dealers with increase 

 Dealers with no change 

 Dealers with decrease 



Percent 



23 

 35 



42 



100 



In Table 29 the increases repre- 

 sent producers who changed dealers 

 so as to convert to tank assemblv. 

 The decreases represent producers 

 who shifted to dealers still accept- 

 ing cans and farmers who closed 

 down production because advanced 

 age or ill health made any radical 

 change too severe a challenge. The 

 dealers who had no change in num- 



27 



