WHAT MAKES A CO-OP GROW? 



IN THE picture above can be found 

 some of the main reasons why Pro- 

 ducers Creamery of Carbondale is 

 a successful cooperative. These men and 

 women are among the cooperators who 

 have been continuous members since 

 the Creamery was organized in 1935. 

 They were in attendance at the Cream- 

 ery's annual meeting. The picture does 

 not include all of the estimated 275 

 original members who are still active. 

 These individuals, together with many 

 others who have joined the ranks since 

 1935, prove that a cooperative is as 

 strong as its membership. 



As producers gathered for their an- 

 nual meeting late in 1944, it was re- 

 called that in the early days people 

 often said "you can't make good butter 

 in Southern Illinois." Today that 

 theory has been thoroughly disproved. 

 During 1944, more than 97 per cent 

 of the butter produced at the Carbon- 

 dale plant met the high quality stand- 

 ards for marketing under the Prairie 

 Farms label. The scope of this achieve- 

 ment is better realized when the qual- 

 ity of butter production in the fir.st 

 year of the Creamery's operation is 

 considered. In 1935, a considerable 

 portion of the output was below 90 

 score. During that first year of opera- 

 tion and in later months there was the 

 problem of eliminating undergrade 

 cream. Areas badly infested with 



U 



wild onions made for poor cream in 

 the early spring and late fall. Another 

 problem was that of building cream 

 volume in counties mainly devoted to 

 fruit and vegetable growing. 



The onion flavor problem was licked 

 in 1940 with the purchase of a vacuum 

 pasteurizer, the first of its kind installed 

 in Illinois, and the third in the United 

 States. The Creamery has concentrated 

 on improving quality since the very be- 

 ginning, and the influence that the Car- 

 bondale Creamery and the state-wide 

 organization, Illinois Producers Cream- 



Pounds oi high quality Prairie Fanns But- 

 ter pile up at the wrapping machine in 

 the Carbondale Producers Creamery. 



eries have had on cream prices runs in- 

 to thousands of dollars in increased re- 

 turns to producers. 



Now this cooperative is launching 

 an expansion program. Some $50,000 

 in stock is being sold to help finance 

 the installation of equipment to make 

 sweetened condensed milk, plain con- 

 densed milk, ice cream mix, dried skim 

 milk, dried whole milk and dried but- 

 termilk. Some of the new equipment 

 will be of such a nature as to eliminate 

 the onion flavor in garlic milk. 



The need for such a conversion pro- 

 gram has been brought ab>out by a 

 shift of patrons to milk during the 

 past two years. During the past 

 year the Creamery's volume has 

 dropped nearly 8 per cent. This 

 occurred during the last three months 

 of the fiscal year. Each time that a 

 drouth is experienced in the area, such 

 as the one last year, some of the larger 



Eroducers are contacted immediately 

 y representatives of milk companies, 

 who urge them to convert to milk pro- 

 duction. Over half of the needed $50,- 

 000 in stock was sold or subscribed in 

 only one day's time spent on the terri- 

 tory. The directors and the manager 

 feel that the total amount will be over- 

 subscribed before the end of January. 

 As of the last of December, WPB 

 had granted priority to the Creamery 

 to build a garage and also a priority 



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