CERTIFIED MILK 209 



OBSTACLES TO THE PROFITABLE PRODUCTION OF CERTIFIED 



MILK (Kelly) 



To support the statement that some certified dairies are 

 run under lax business methods, it is only necessary to point 

 to a few figures received by this department. For instance, 

 one dairy reports that the retail price of milk is 20 cents a 

 quart, the average bacterial count is 4000 a cubic centimeter, 

 and that the business is not profitable and it would require a 

 retail price of 25 cents a quart to make it so. Another dairy 

 states that the retail price is only 12 cents, the bacterial count 

 3000 (less than in the case of the other dairy), and that the 

 business is profitable. There is a difference of 8 cents a quart 

 in favor of the first dairy, and yet with that advantage it is 

 unable to conduct the business at a profit. 



Many certified milk producers have erected extremely 

 elaborate buildings, the interest and depreciation on which are 

 so high that they form a considerable item to be charged against 

 the cost of production. The interest and depreciation on a 

 simple, inexpensive certified plant is estimated to amount to 

 at least 6 cents a gallon, or 1^- cents a quart. In some of the 

 more elaborate plants, where much money has been spent for 

 ornamental equipment, the interest and depreciation would 

 be much higher. Experience in the past has proved that the 

 production of clean milk is not dependent upon expensive equip- 

 ment so much as upon care and vigilance concerning the methods 

 of production. It is a well-known fact in business that a 

 manufacturing plant cannot afford to turn out such a small 

 quantity of goods that the interest and depreciation on the 

 factory will be too heavy a tax on the goods sold. Applying 

 this same principle to dairying, it is almost impossible to see 

 where some of the small dairies can afford to operate as they 

 do. One dairy reports that they are selling only 12^- quarts 

 of certified milk a day, and the interest and depreciation on the 



