Many statements and claims are made by manufacturers and industry 

 leaders which can be better evaluated as more detailed information on in- 

 dividual operations becomes available and as studies are made of the separ- 

 ate markets. 



Conditions for Investment 



Increased use of tanks in the assembly of milk has industry-wide effects. 

 The decision to invest in and proceed with the change-over from cans to tanks 

 rests jointly with producers and dealers. Bulk assembly with tank trucks is 

 not generally possible until farm tank coolers are installed in fairly large 

 numbers in any area. On the other hand, disinvestment in the old van-tvpe 

 truck places similar emphasis on the decisions of dealers or private truckers. 



No rational investment will be made until future savings or returns on 

 the investment are apparent. Milk dealers will encourage the change to bulk 

 handling if there are advantages and potentially lower costs in the assembly 

 or processing of milk. Farmers favor a change if they expect the costs of 

 handling milk on their farms will be reduced or the price received for milk 

 sufficiently increased. The conveniences may be valued higher by some pro- 

 ducers than others in relation to dollar costs. Producers pay for the trans- 

 portation of milk to the plant, therefore the trucking costs must either be 

 reduced or increased less than the savings from the farm tank. Cost reduction 

 in the creamery or dealers plant operation will enable dealers to increase 

 their profit margin, maintain or reduce prices to consumers, or raise pay- 

 ments to producers. The incentives will vary for each investor in proportion 

 to expected savings or benefits. 



The ownership of capital is divided between producers, dealers, and/or 

 truckers so that decisions will be made separately by each individual except 

 in the case of producer-owned cooperatives when a joint decision is made. 



It is the purpose of this bulletin, therefore, to outline the problems of 

 tank assembly and to assist in future investment-decisions of farmers, truck- 

 ers, and dealers. It is oriented to New Hampshire conditions, but the tech- 

 niques and the findings will be of value in milksheds of similar or dissimilar 

 structures. 



At the Farm 



Producers 



There were 7,603 producers of milk in New Hampshire during 1950. 

 About 30 percent of these producers owned over 75 percent of the cows 

 milked, while 44 percent percent milked only 8 percent of the cows. It would 

 be safe to estimate therefore that in 1950 about 3,500 farms were produc- 

 ing most of the market milk in the State. Fifty percent of the cows being 

 milked were in herds of from 10 to 29 cows. There are, however, numerous 

 owners of 1- to 4-cow herds shipping milk to dealers. Table 1 approximates 

 the distribution of cows milked by size of herd. 



The major part of the approximately 300 million pounds of milk sold 

 each year by New Hampshire producers is processed and distributed by 

 dealers. There are still some producer-distributors of raw milk, but their 

 number is declining.* About 60 percent of the milk sold is consumed in the 

 State while most of the remainder is delivered to Massachusetts milk dealers. 



*Bowring, J. R., and Holmes, J. C. Milk Marketing in Small Towns, Agricultural 

 Economics Research Mimeograph No. 6. New Hamphire Experiment Station. 



