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October, 1932 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



Page Fifteen 



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■.w V 



Quality Milk Ass'n 



Plant Now Operating 



The Quality Milk Association plant 

 in Davenport shown in the accom- 

 panying picture was leased from the 

 Cudahy Packing Co. It contains com- 

 plete equipment for manufacturing 

 butter, separating milk, pasteurizing 

 and sterilizing milk and cream, and 

 for caring for the finished product 

 in cold storage. 



It is equipped with three large 

 10,000 pound churns. F. J. Watson 

 who has been employed as manager, 

 formerly operated the plant for the 

 Cudahy Company. He states that 

 they have made as high as 10,000 

 pounds of butter a day in the plant. 

 The first week in September milk 

 deliveries were exceeding 40,000 

 pounds daily. Sixteen large trucks 

 were hauling in. All of these trucks 

 are controlled by the Association. 



The Cudahy Packing Co. is under 

 contract to market the butter for 

 the Association up to 1,500,000 pounds 

 a year. 



The milk of members on the Illi- 

 nois side is being delivered to the 

 Sturtevant Ice Cream Co. which 



F. J. WATSON ia the efficient 

 miinaieer of the Q,aallt7 Milk plant 

 in Davenport. 



owns the finest dairy manufacturing 

 and distributing plant in any of the 

 quad-cities. The Sturtevant Co. is 

 co-operating heart and soul with the 

 producers and has agreed to pay $1.85 

 per cwt. for all the milk going into 

 its fluid trade. It is taking the other 

 milk at the surplus price. 



The Sturtevant Co. is building up 

 a retail and wholesale fluid milk 

 and cream business, and on Septem- 

 ber 8 reported that it was making 

 deliveries to more than 60 stores, 

 restaurants, and other dealers in the 

 four cities. 



The Sturtevant Co. is using "Seal- 

 right" fiber bottles. The fiber is 

 coated with wax inside and out, is 

 more sanitary than the glass bottles, 

 and does away with the necessity of 

 washing and returnii^g the con- 

 tainer. 



UNLOADING AT QUALITY MILK ASS'N PLANT IN DAVENPORT 

 As we go to prettJi, thl« co-operatively controlled plant i« receiving nearly 50,000 

 IbM. of milk daily. The milk is separated, pasteuriced, the cream churned into 

 butter and the skim returned to the farm. Members received 22c per lb. net for 

 butterfat the first month of operation — nearly as much an the milk distributors 

 paid them for whole milk. 



Milk Producers Demand Justice 



(Continued from page 13) 



and short changed on weights, when 

 they are subjected to the dictation 

 and domination of a monopoly of 

 arrogant distributors who go so far 

 as to foment strife and disorganiza- 

 tion among producers struggling for 

 a square deal, it is too much for 

 those with any sense of fairness and 

 justice to stand idly by without ut- 

 tering a vigorous protest. 



The action which the newspapers 

 have designated as a strike, came 

 about primarily because of the 

 dealers' refusal to allow the pro- 

 ducers to check their records and 

 determine the percentage of milk go- 

 ing into the fluid milk trade,' and 

 that portion known as the surplus 

 used for making butter and other 

 products. 



The Spread Too Wide 



On this market for some time, the 

 dealers have been paying $1.85 per 

 cwt. for so-called base milk — sup- 

 posedly that portion or percentage 

 sold as fluid milk, and a lesser price 

 based on the butterfat market for 

 the surplus or manufactured milk. 

 The price on the latter class has 

 been netting the farmers . about a 

 cent a quart, that on the base milk 

 approximately 4 cents a quart. On 

 the average, about 50 percent of the 

 farmers' milk goes in the base class 

 at $1.85 per cwt. and about 50 per- 

 cent in the surplus class at 66 cents 

 per cwt. Thus his entire supply 

 averages after hauling charges, 

 about 99 cents per cwt., or a little 

 over 2 cents a quart, which any fair- 

 minded person must admit is too 

 wide a spread. The distributor sells 

 this milk to the consumer at 10 cents 

 per quart. The farmers contend that 

 they should be allowed the privilege 

 of checking the distributors* records 

 to determine the percentage sold in 



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the higher bracket and that sold as 

 butter and other manufactured 

 products. 



The distributors here have con- 

 tended all along that they have 

 been losing money on the surplus, 

 that they didn't want it. "All right," 

 said the producers, "we'll acquire our 

 own plant and process our own sur- 

 plus, and supply you with just 

 enough milk at $1.85 per cwt., to take 

 care of your fluid milk trade." 



The dealers replied that they 

 couldn't pay $1.85 per cwt. for milk 

 for their fluid trade if they couldn't 

 get any surplus. Thus they virtually 

 admitted deception, that they were 

 not now paying $1.85 for the base 

 milk and were in fact, hoodwinking 

 the producers by diverting so-called 

 surplus milk bought at a butterfat 

 price, into their more lucrative 

 fluid milk trade. 



The organized dairymen hold that 

 they can process the surplus milk 

 themselves into butter more eco- 

 nomically than can the distributors 

 and are willing to sell butter to the 

 distributors for their retail require- 

 ments at the Chicago market price. 



Then the dealers asked the farmers 

 to agree not to go into business for 

 themselves. T^is request the dairy- 

 men refused, since such action may 

 be necessary to provide a future 

 market for their milk. 



The dealers asked the producers to 

 give them protection from all price 

 cutting, an absolute monopoly. Such 

 a request is absurd. The distributors 

 don't have any such protection now 

 nor will they ever have so long as 

 the market is kept free and open to 

 all comers. 



Finally they told the producers in 

 their last conference that they had 



(Continued on Page 18 Col. 1) 



