Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1924-03-27
FARM
COOPERATIVE
SELLING
By GLENN C. HAYES
How Butter and Cheese Are
Sent TO Market
90. 1924, western Newspaper Union.)

uFSl CU-Op0FdIOTS. OUGeS6 was
the first agricultural product to travel
the cooperative road to market. But
ter soon followed suit.
Cooperative cheese marketing had
its start back in the latter part Of the
middle ages. Swiss dairy farmers
learned that the labor Of cheeseman's
ing was greatly reduced if six or
seven of them formed a group and
each member took his turn at making
the cheese for them ALL Manufacture
was the first step. Marketing came
next. Cheese rings soon discovered
that traders would pay slightly higher
premium for the larger quantities of
uniform quality cheese than they
would for individual lots. They began
pooling their cheese, and one mem
Der with ability for trading would
handle the selling Of the entire lot.
Cooperative dairying was next
tried in France, then Alsace, Bavaria
and Saxony. It was two hundred
years later that American pioneers
formed the first cheese ring. Until
1841 every farmer was his own cheese
maker, but in that year group of
farmers at Lake Rock, in Jefferson
county, Wisconsin, established a cheese
ring and took turns week by week
making the cheese. Immediately other
cheese rings were started in the Berk-
shire hills of Massachusetts and in a
few years they were common in Con-
necticut, New York and Wisconsin.
Today there are approximately 1000
cheese factories of which $500 are in
Wisconsin.
One-fourtht Of these Wisconsin fac
tories are comparatively owned and
operated. The farmers deliver their
milk every day and it is made into
cheese and sold green. AS the cheese
Industry grew in the state, cheese
boards came into existence where buy
ers and sellers met to make prices.
One Of these boards, the Plymouth
Cheese exchange as 1t is called, came
to dominate all the others. It's price
established the price level for all the
cheese of Wisconsin. The farmers
came to realize that the Plymouth
board didn't always play square, and
in 1912, 40 local cooperative cheese
factories revolted and came together
to form the Sheboygan County Cheese
Producers federation for handling
their own sales. In 1917 they changed
their name to the wisconsin Cheese
Producers federation. In 1921, 40
local units of Minnesota asked to come
into the. organization In all, the fed
Grafton now markets the output for
175 cooperative cheese factories.
Members Under Contract.
Members of the local units are un-
der contract to deliver all Of their
milk to the local association, which in
turn is under contract to deliver all
the cheese made from the product to
the federation. The local factory
ships its cheese directly to the fed
.eration's warehouses and there it is
inspected and graded, weighed and
sold or put into storage. The sales for
each month are pooled by grades and
no attention is paid to the Plymouth
board prices.
Across the continent In Tillamook
county, Oregon, is a little dairy valley
scarcely eight by twenty miles, hall
hidden among the mountains. Since
the early days Tillamook farmers have
been dairymen in spite of the fact
that they couldn't make it pay. They
thought cooperation would turn the
trick, so back in 1893 they formed the
Tillamook Dairy association to make
butter. They nearly failed Next they
tried making cheese and they failed
completely. After another failure with
butter the dairymen turned again to
cheese. This time they had better
luck. The manufacture Of cheese was
put on a paying basis. Today the as
sociation owns % factories and 65 per
cent Of their cheese is sold to Califor-
MIA brokers and the other 35 per cent
goes to Pacific coast markets. The
receipts are pooled each month and
the farmers are paid just as fast as
the cheese is sold.
In spite of the seemingly large guam
titles of cheese sold through co-opera-
tive organizations, cooperative cheese
marketing has barely progressed be-
yond the building of good foundation
for the future.
It wasn't long after the Swiss farm
ers formed their first cheese rings
until they began to organize co-opera-
tive circles for the manufacture and
selling of butter. This first adventure
was not particularly successful-not
until after the Centennial exposition
at Philadelphia did the Danes make
a go of cooperative butter making.
The Danish commission to the expo
sition took home a full report of a
plan by which American cooperative
creameries In Orange and Duchess
counties, New York, were succeeding.
In 1882 a cooperative creamery built
on the American plan was established
at Hiedding-the first in Denmark to
make a go of cooperation. In 1921
there were 1885 cooperative cream
cries handling the cream Of 100000
farmers.
Cooperative Butter.
In America the first man to attempt
L. I,,~A r sc