Marketing Operations of Dairy Cooperatives

Excerpts from the report: Dairy cooperatives are shrinking in number but expanding the volume of milk marketed, paralleling the trend industrywide to fewer and larger firms. Recent and current technological changes and developments in the dairy industry, such as bulk milk assembly, continuous butter churns, automated cheesemaking systems, high-speed and automated packaging and distribution systems have caused changes in the structure of the dairy industry. Generally, both dairy firms and their plants have had to become larger. This report provides information on dairy cooperatives’ scope and performance in marketing farmers’ milk in the changing environment.