be forced to charge them 15c per 

 100 lbs. for separating this milk. 

 This would mean the farmer received 

 a gross price of approximately 75c 

 per 100 lbs. for one-half of his milk 

 delivered to the dealers platforms, 

 less 25c for hauling, less 15c for 

 separating and he would have net at 

 the farm, approximately 35c per 100 

 lbs, for his milk. 



The Pet Farms 



At the same time, the dealers were 

 assisting in the development of cer- 

 tain farms which were receiving the 

 so-called "base price" for all of their 

 milk. Thus, in order to protect the 

 interest of the so-called "straw stack" 

 farmers, the Association was forced 

 to equip a surplus milk plant for its 

 members to handle this milk. Sepa- 

 rators, churns, vats and all necessary 

 equipment was installed. The milk 

 was separated, the cream churned in- 

 to high quality butter and the skim 

 milk was either returned to the farms 

 or manufactured into casein. By such 

 a system the farmers' organization 

 was in a position to pay much more 

 than 35c per 100 lbs. net for the mem- 

 bers' milk. 



After handling this milk for a few 

 weeks the dealers decided they could 

 pay more money for this milk. The 

 Illinois Milk Producers Association 

 was set up not to operate plants un- 

 le£«3 forced to do so but to market 

 high quality milk of their members 

 for the most money possible, thus^ 

 when the dealers agreed to pay more 

 money for surplus milk than our own 

 plant could pay, the Association let 

 them have it. But in the meantime 

 the dealers had forced the farmers to 

 equip a plant to handle their surplus 

 milk. It then became necessary to 

 supply this plant with sufficient but- 

 terfat to operate it economically and 

 in such a way that it could operate 

 and make money for its farmer own- 

 ers. It is so equipped that it can 

 handle all of the milk on the market 

 if necessary. 



The Spare Tires 



This situation along with the Rock 

 Island controversy, had tremendous 

 influence in the launching of a 

 state-wide chain of co-operative 

 creameries and surplus milk plants, 

 known as the Illinois Producers' 

 Creameries which now has plants in 

 active operation in the Rock Island 

 area, Peoria and Bloomington. 



Although the Peoria market was 

 being supplied with an abundance of 

 high quality milk, and the producers 

 were agreeable to a program of sell- 

 ing all of their milk to the dealers and 



taking surplus prices for 50% of it and 

 $1.65 for remaining one-half, the 

 dealers continued their "cow deal." 

 In addition th«y insisted on going 

 outside the milk shed and buying 38,- 

 000 lbs. milk daily, using this as they 

 said for a SPARE TIRE. : :: 



Our members said they didn't see 

 anything wrong with a fellow carry- 

 ing one spare tire but when they in- 

 sisted on carrying a whole set of tires 

 as "spares," it wasn't a normal state 

 of affairs. Either the driver had in 

 mind getting off the straight wide 

 smooth road and getting into a crooked 

 rocky road among the hills, or he ex- 

 pected to blow off the tires he had. 



The Association believed that the 

 Peoria market should be maintained 

 for the nearby producers and that 

 there should be no "pet farms" receiv- 

 ing all base price but that all pro- 

 ducers should share the market equal- 

 ly and that this market should not be 

 replaced by milk brought in from out- 

 side the trade territory to further re- 

 duce the small proportionate amount 

 of remaining base which the members 

 had. ,, ;. ■■;, 



The dealers continued these tactics 

 and after weeks of unsuccessful ne- 

 gotiations in which the producers 

 agreed to arbitrate the entire matter, 

 they were forced to find a market for 

 their milk other than that of the local 

 distributors who were buying milk 

 from farms 75 miles away. 



The Members Voted 



The members were called together 

 and told that it was their milk, their 

 market and they were the ones that 

 received the milk checks; that the 

 board and management had been un- 

 able to get any kind of a deal with 

 the dealers; that their last and most 

 powerful weapon had not been used — 

 that of putting our own milk on the 

 doorstep of the consumer. The mem- 

 bers, nearly 1,000 strong, were unani- 

 mous in their decision to follow this 

 latter plan. 



Nine thousand three hundred dollars 

 worth of stock was purchased that 

 night and within 10 days $28,000 of 

 Peoria Producers Dairy stock had been 

 bought by the members. A small plant 

 and business known as "The Little 

 Brown Dairy" was purchased by the 

 producers. The I. A. A. and the Mis- 

 sissippi Valley Milk Producers (a fed- 

 eration of milk co-ops.) again endea- 

 vored to get the groups together but 

 after two weeks negotiations in which 

 both dealers and producers had agreed 

 on an lie retail price and $2.00 to pro- 

 ducers for base milk \-ith all farms 

 on an equal basis, the aealers walked 

 out and refused to even discuss the 

 proposition further. 



I. A. A. RECORD— January, 19S4 



During these negotiations, meetings 

 had been held between the Mississippi 

 Valley Milk Producers, and the Illi- 

 nois Milk Dealers Association, for the 

 purpose of jointly working out a milk 

 code for the State. We were informed 

 by their secretary that they would not 

 co-operate on this program until the 

 Peoria situation was satisfactorily 

 settled, yet they could not find time 

 to go to Peoria "at our invitation" to 

 render any assistance in settling the 

 controversy. Thus, the interest of 

 other fluid milk markets was jeop- 

 ardized because of this "stalling" pro- 

 gram of the State Dealers Associa- 

 tion. 



Thus, the only course left open to 

 the producers was to go in business. 

 Loyal members came to town and 

 solicited from house to house. With- 

 in a few weeks volume was increased 

 300%. It has become necessary to 

 install more equipment and move the 

 office headquarters to another build- 

 ing. Ei hteen trucks are now carry- 

 ing a full line of Peoria Producers 

 milk, cream, cottage cheese, butter 

 and eggs direct to the consumers. 

 This is another example of where 

 greedy distributors have forced the 

 producers against their will to go di- 

 rect to the consumer with his prod- 

 ucts. 



^: 



Co-op. Creamery In Rock 

 — Island Area Debt Free 



In a recent letter to Western Illi- 

 nois Farm Bureaus, F. J. Watson, 

 manager of the Farmers Co-operative 

 Dairy Products Company, one of the 

 three co-operative creamery plants 

 associated with Illinois Producers' 

 Creameries, which is serving the Rock 

 Island territory, stated that the cost 

 of the plant equipment as it stands is 

 approximately $13,000. 



"We met with some disappointments 

 as most individuals and business con- 

 cerns did during the epidemic of bank 

 failures," said Mr. Watson. "Our loss 

 was a little more "than $5,600. Along 

 with this and other unavoidable ex- 

 penses due to dealer opposition in our 

 territory we have still been able to 

 forge ahead, have covered all losses, 

 met all our obligations and at present 

 we have only one more payment to 

 make and our plant will be clear of 

 all indebtedness. We could write this 

 check tonight and still have some 

 working capital left. 



"This is what can be done with vol- 

 ume and a loyal membership. A loyal 

 membership is the greatest asset a co- 

 operative can have. 



■■* IK* 



f 



■«» 



