Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-10-10

IL mas been recommended by the
sales committee of the New England
Dairymen's Association that the
cream plan be discontinued, anil the
directors of the association endorsed
the action of the committee after
hearing the report concerning the
way in which the cream plan is now
working out. Conferences are now
being held and dealers are looking
forward to the discontinuance of the
cream plan Jan. /, 1926.
The three chief reasons which lead
the sales committee to make this rec
concentration are:
l. Because farmers will not ship
milk during the short season when
they have been shipping cream the
rest of the year.
2. Because the Unrestricted oppor-
tunity to buy surplus milk at butter
tat prices. under the cream plan. has
led dealers to greatly enlarge their
territory and purchases.
3. Because the cream plan has
been extended to cover territory
which is so remote and inaccessible
that it could not ship milk readily.
The cream plan was started three
years ago in order to keep skim milk
back on the farm, where it has some
value. and to keep it off the market
where 1T had no value. Prices on by
products at that time were so low
that the dealers could not get back
the cost of manufacture and skim
milk was dumped in large quantities.
This was an economic waste and the
cream plan was developed in the
Turner Center System as a means of
Keeping the skim milk back on the
farm.
The cream plan was originally in
tended to apply only to regions which
were in position to ship milk. 1t fur
ntshed an opportunity for the farmers
to ship their product as cream dur
ing the flush season when the whole
milk was not needed in the market
and to return to shipping milk dur
ing the short season when whole milk
was needed. The skim milk kept at
home had a value for feeding pur-
poses and each farmer paid for It.
After making the allowance for
skim milk kept at home the cream
patron was paid for the cream which
he shipped with the addition of a
small amount per hundred pounds to
equalize his price with the price paid
to the producer who shipped whole
milk.
During the first year of operation
the cream plan worked well and
served its purpose. So long as prices
on by-products remained low the
wisdom of keeping this skim on the
farm was unquestioned. Both
whole milk shippers and cream ship
pers received n somewhat higher
price than they otherwise would have
done, due to the fact that the skim
milk was utilized at home and not
dumped at the shipping station after
it had been hauled some distance.
The lowering of the surplus which re-
suited had some effect in stabilizing
the market.
The first difficulty which arose I'M
der the cream plan was when the next
short production period came. Then
the whole milk was needed by the
dealers and the farmers were asked
to return to shipping milk. Very few
of them were willing to do so. They
had equipped themselves with sepa-
rators and adjusted their farm prac-
tees to the plan of feeding the skim
milk at.>home. They would get just
as much for their product as cream
as they would receive If they shipped
1t as milk and they would not change
back to milk shipments. This diff
Guilty still stands. AS a farm man.
agement proposition changes from
cream back to milk and from milk to
cream do not work out we'll
The general refusal of farmers to
return to milk shipments during the
short season left the dealers short of
market milk. They proceeded to buy
from new territory for the short sea-
son and kept on buying from the new
territory. This resulted in a material
increase In the purchases and to
degree is responsible for
the general high level of surplus for
the past two years.
The good recovery Of the by-pro-
ducts market was material factor
in this increased purchase of milk by
the large dealers. Surplus milk could
be manufactured into by-products
and return profit to the dealer
They were no longer forced to dump
skim milk. They could manufacture
it at profit. The more of it they
had the more profit they could make.
Under these conditions it was to the
of the dealers to increase
their purchaser and extend into new
The ~unwillingness Of the
farmers to return to milk shipments
during the short season forced them
to buy some outside milk and the
higher prices on. by-products in
the tendency to seek add1-
t.onal supplies.
The third abuse which has grown
UP under the cream plan is that con-
areas which were In po-
sition to ship cream but not to ship
milk, have been taken in under the
cream plan and are now sharing IN
the whole milk price. They could not
under any circumstances ship milk
and are not entitled to any portion OF
the whole milk price. They did not
ask to come in under the cream plan
but it was to the advantage of the
dealers to put them under tle cream
plan as it gave their nrodrit to the
lealers at a lower price than the
dealers had been paying for it for