'T 



(Editor's Note: This is the first in a 

 series of sketches on Farm Bureau lead- 

 ers in Illinois.) 



I F THE young farmer could look 

 back as far as some of us older 

 fellows can, he could easily see 

 how far we have come," Harold Enns, 

 president of the board of directors of 

 Prairie Farms Creameries, replied when 

 asked where Farm Bureau people could 

 see the benefits of selling to their cream- 

 ery cooperatives. 



Enns seated himself comfortably in an 

 easy chair in the large living room of 

 his attractive farm home near Minier as 

 he related the disappointments, heartaches 

 and successes that went into the making 

 of Prairie Farms Creameries, the great 

 Illinois Agricultural Association coopera- 

 tive organization which during the year 

 ending Sept. 30, 1946, manufactured 

 more than 5 million pounds of butter. 



Kansas-born and orphaned at the age 

 of eight, Harold Enns came to Illinois 

 a generation ago for a short visit. He 

 has been an Illinois farmer ever since. 



He has never regretted his decision 

 to make his home here and neither has 

 Farm Bureau. 



Because during the past 20 years, 

 Harold Enns has been a member of 

 the McLean County Farm Bureau and 

 has been in the forefront on all pro- 

 gressive farm policy and has been par- 

 ticularly outstanding for the part he has 

 played in the building of Prairie Farms 

 Creameries, the statewide lAA cream co- 

 operative composed of 10 member plants. 



Interested in his youth in the produc- 

 tion of milk, and ever proud of his herd 

 of pure-bred Guernseys, Enns naturally 

 became concerned with marketing prob- 

 lems when surpluses weakened prices 

 So, resolved to do something about prices 

 ind marketing, he soon found himself 

 appointed chairman of the Milk Asso- 

 ciation of Bloomington, a cooperative 

 milk marketing organization. 



ThU it an air view of tli* Eimi farm. 



Creamery Co-op Pioneer 

 Sees a Dream Come True 



By JIM THOMSON 



Ats't Editor, lAA RECORD 



Subsequently, in 1933 when the first 

 cooperative creameries were organized, 

 he was elected to the board of directors 

 of the state organization now called 

 Prairie Farms Creameries. In 1936 Enns 

 was elected president, an office he has 

 held ever since. 



During World War I, Enns served on 

 a subchaser and was discharged from the 

 service in 1919. Returning to north 

 central Illinois, he rented a farm and 

 was married. About this time he started 

 operating a milk route, transporting milk 

 to the Bloomington market for 10 years. 



HaroM Enni, pratldani of th* beard of 

 director* of Prairio Farms Croomorioi, Is 



sliown with his prixod Owomsoy bull o«t- 

 sldo barn at homo noar Minior, III. 



Quite sensibly, he bought his present 

 farm near Minier during the depression 

 years when prices were low. It also was 

 during the depression years of the early 

 thirties when problems were most acute 

 that Enns' interest in milk marketing 

 was most intense. 



Exploring ever}' possibility in order 

 to help farmers market their milk, the 

 Milk Association of Bloomington sent 

 a committee, headed by Enns, to several 

 other states to study their farm coopera- 

 tives. 



Tall, muscular, 48-year-old Enns re- 

 calls that the early cream pools set up 

 throughout the state to accumulate and 

 deliver large quantities of cream to proc- 

 essors did not work very well. 



He laughs as he tells the story he 

 once heard of a cream pool in La Salle 

 county which sold to a firm in Chicago. 

 The head of the Chicago firm always 

 showed up for the pool's annual meeting 

 and always inquired regarding its finan- 

 cial status for the year past. And when- 

 ever the head of the Chicago firm learned 

 that the pool lost money, he would cover 

 the losses with money from his own 

 pocket. Needless to say, the cream pool 

 producers soon became a little suspicious 

 that they weren't getting all that was 

 coming to them. 



Cooperative-minded producers there- 

 upon considered building their own 

 (Continued on paft 18) 



SCORD 



NOVEMBER, 1946 



