One comprises the large incorporated associations with hundreds and sometimes thousands of member producers, who confine themselves to major products, or to those grown in considerable volume. The other consists of producers from a county or group of counties, who form smaller organizations in their own localities for joint marketing. In 1877 a group of sheep-growers formed the Goodlettsville Lamb Club, the first lamb pool organized in the United States, and made its first sale in May 1878. One of the first southern cooperative creameries began operation in 1910 at Winchester, in Franklin County. Earlier, more than five unsuccessful attempts had been made to establish cooperative creameries.
Today there are fewer cooperative associations in Tennessee than was the case some years ago.
Trucking facilities enable growers to haul their products to market at convenient times rather than wait for the periodic shipments of cooperative associations. In this way, too, they get their money immediately. Marketing by associations usually requires a ten-day period before cash for the products can be received. Under the direction of the State Department of Agriculture and with the cooperation of the University of Tennessee College of Agriculture, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and county demonstration agents, Tennessee farmers have made great strides. Methods of cultivation have been improved, better seeds and more efficient equipment have been utilized, and grades of products have been standardized.