The most common plan of operation was to adjust producer receipts as 

 much as possible and then to buy small quantities when short of milk and 

 to sell the surplus to another dealer when excess milk was on hand. Of the 

 167 dealers, 35 or 21 per cent made a definite practice of buying sufficient 

 milk from producers in the low production periods and selling the surplus 

 as milk to another plant in periods of excess production. Only 6 per cent 

 of the dealers operated by limiting producer receipts in the flush season to 

 the quantity needed for fluid sales. 



Outlets for Surplus Milk 



More dealers balanced (in the general sense) by selling or manufacturing 

 their surplus (buying long) than by limiting the purchase of producer milk 

 and buying from other dealers when in short supply. Manufacturing at their 

 own plant was the least used method of surplus disposal, Table 9. Separating 

 was the most common method of handling milk not sold as fluid milk or 

 milk drinks. 



Table 9 Methods of Disposal of Surplus Milk Reported by Dealers in Four 



Northeastern States who were Attempting to Balance Milk Receipts 



with Fluid Sales, 167 Dealers, 1956-1957. 



Method of Disposal 



Number of Dealers 

 Reporting 



Per Cent of 167 

 Dealers 



Manufacture 



Separate 



Sell as milk to another plant 



28 

 142 

 112 



17 

 85 

 67 



The results of individual state studies of two of these states show that on 

 a volume of milk basis, selling cream locally was the most important outlet 

 for separated milk for plants supplying local markets. 11 In Vermont during 

 1953, 87 per cent of the milk not sold in other fluid forms was in the form 

 of cream for local consumption. In the state of New Hampshire, data col- 

 lected in 1955 show approximately 70 per cent of the milk not used as fluid 

 whole milk was disposed of locally as fluid cream. 



The separating process leaves a large quantity of skim milk which must 

 be utilized. With little exception, this product is a surplus commodity. Some 

 is used as fluid skim, but most of it is used for cottage cheese, dumped or 

 fed to livestock. The study made in Vermont indicated that approximately 

 36 per cent of the skim milk separated was used as non-fat fluid milk. The 

 remaining 64 per cent was used either as cottage cheese (less than 13 per 

 cent), dumped and used as livestock feed or unaccounted for in the dealer's 

 records. A somewhat different situation existed in New Hampshire in 1955 

 in skim utilization. Only about 13 per cent of the skim milk was sold on 



11 Ibid, McAllister, C. E., Vermont's Milk Dealers. 



Ibid, Bowring, J. R., Production and Utilization of Milk By-Products in New Hamp- 

 shire. 



20 



