The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1941-07-02
LAKE COUNTY
COOP GETS
PUBLICITY

d sociation Publicized in tn,
i Farm Credit Journal, Hous.
Organ of the Farm Credi
Adm; Relates Progress.
The main feature story captionet
} 1880 Started This Coop" in the cur.
: rent issue of the Farm Credit journal
the monthly publication of the Farm
Credit Administration in Spokane
covers the growth of the Lake County
Dairymen's Association from the time
1t was organized as a cream shipping
: pool until the present when it owns
its creamery, its cold storage locker
plant, elevator and feed mixing plant.
The story is reprinted below:
Twelve years ago 40 dairymen of
Lake county, Montana, put up So
apiece to find out If they could get
more for their cream by pooling their
shipments, rather than by selling in
dependently. In the IL years since
then, that $50 has grown into the
Lake County Dairymen's Association,
with total assets of $4,000 and a net
worth of $4,000.
That $50 grew without any further
direct contribution in cash by the
members-it has been multiplied 500
times solely out of the savings of the
Coop, which at the same time has
paid its members the full market price
for their production. There was a
time, few years ago, when the as
ISOLATION needd some additional funds
| for expansion, and issued some pre-
ferred stock, but that has long since
been retired at par.
Now, one of the first rules to be OBJ
served In organizing a cooperative is
that it be started with adequate capt.
tai, and $50 certainly doesn't answer
to that definition. However, these
Lake county dairymen didn't organize
a full-fledged coop with their $50.
They organized cream shipping pool,
which required no capital. In their
first transaction, however, they dem
onstrated their sound business judg-
ment. They didn't contract any fixed
amount of cream to be delivered
they contracted the production of
their herds, whatever that might be-
After few years experience with
the cream pool, the Lake county farm
ers realized they could step up their
returns If they made and sold their
own butter, but they still did not have
enough money to establish their own
creamery, so they made comprom-
Use. They put up their own cream
station at Charlo, Montana, where the |
cream was assembled weighed and |
tested, and then made contract with |
private creamery in Missoula to
churn their butter.
This arrangement lasted just two
years. In that time the Lake county |
producers paid the Missoula creamery
$4,000 for it's services. "Then," say
A. L. Fryberger, president Of the as
ISOLATION, 'the bones in our skulls
began to soften up and we got an
idea through"
In January, 1887, the association
its first butter in it's own
plant. An important factor in speed
ing up this development was that
the association affiliated with the
United Dairymen's Association, with
headquarters in Seattle, which is one
Of the nations leading cooperative
dairy products sales agencies. Through
United, the Lake county members
we're assured an efficient outlet for
all the butter they could make.
Going into the creamery business
required more cash than the associa-
lion had available, however, and so
he association turned to a co-opera-
i've source for the credit it needed {
he Spokane Bank for Co-operatives. {
At the Coop bank the association |
'ound not only credit service, but also 6
assistance in perfecting it's co-opera- Q
i've organization for greatest eff {
,fency and maximum service to mem {
)ers. t
Even before the association estab- ]
ished its creamery-actually at the L
ime it started it's own cream station r
the organization began to expand
n other directions to provide services t
members needed. The first expansion b
vas the installation of a cold storage a
ecker plant with 100 lockers This
ince has grown to a plant with 220 Il
ockers, a separate chilling room, and II
cutting room where butcher will t.
ut and wrap meat for members for a
ne cent pound. a
Other developments since then in '
Jude the oil business and the feed a
usiness. The oil business started lie
nth gas pump at the creamery. n
low the association has its own COM tt
lete service station and storage
anks. Last year it handled $4,000 IL
allons of gasoline. p
In 1888 members began pooling or s
ers for feed. They saved so much
his way that they concluded they Y
ould save even more If they mixed =,
leir own feeds, so the association
ought a 500-pound feed mixer and
lstalled it in a back room of the tt
srvice station. Today the associa- d
on is operating its own 10000 bushel \
evator; it has installed a one-ton
ed mixer, and last year feed sales "
tailed $4,000
Last year the association manu- Ii
Ictured 415,000 pounds of butter al
all of it 81 score sour =;
cam product. Some is sold locally, -,
1t most goes to market through the IL
nited Dairymen's Association. l.
4