Page 7 - DairyOnThePrairie

Dairy on the Prairie 5
During the 1950s, farmers were increasingly switch-
ing from the farm-separated cream system to selling
whole milk to processing plants. Skim milk was no
longer being fed to the farmer's livestock. Since dair-
ying was no longer tied to other aspects of the farm-
er's operation, it became more of a specialty.
Particularly in northeast Iowa, where the topography
was especially suited to dairying, many such opera-
tions were expanded, while other regions focused
more on hog production or raising one or two crops,
reflecting the larger trend away from mixed crop and
livestock farming seen earlier in the century.13
Although the state's milk production was still at
WWII levels, as was the amount of butter being man-
ufactured, the way that milk was marketed and pro-
cessed had changed significantly. In the 1940s about
80% of the state's dairy output left the farm as cream
and about 20% as whole milk. By the 1960s, these fig-
ures had reversed.14
Creameries found they needed to handle large vol-
umes of milk in order to operate at a profit. Machin-
ery such as large industrial separators or milk-drying
machines was expensive, and the cost of moderniz-
ing could not be offset by handling low volumes of
milk. At whole milk creameries, milk was piped from
the bulk storage tanks into large separators capable of
separating 5,000 gallons of milk an hour. Such cream-
eries needed to make about three million pounds of
butter a year in order to be profitable. After the cream
was processed into butter, the remaining skim milk,
once fed to farmers' hogs, was sold to plants equipped
with dryers.15
Drying was becoming increasingly common among
processors by the 1960s. In 1964, over 200 millions
pounds of nonfat dry milk were produced in Iowa,
compared with less than 20 million pounds in 1952.
There had developed by this time a large market na-
tionally for dried milk, which was sold to the pro-
cessed food industry for use in baked goods and
instant foods. About half the dried milk sold was pur-
chased by the government and went into national
lunch programs and overseas relief Butter making, ca. 1900. Courtesy of State Historical
agencies.16 Society ofIowa, Iowa City, Irving B. Weber collection.
The number of creameries in in cheese production.18
Iowa had fallen from about 500 be- This trend continued in the 1970s, encouraged by
fore World War II to 240 in 1960.
After 1960, the number of creamer- rising cheese prices, with more and more plants tran-
ies continued to decline steadily. Of sitioning to cheese production. In 1960, there were 45
the approximately 200 remaining in plants producing cheese, up from 13 in 1930. By 1995,
the mid-1960s, about 30 were large 68% of the milk from Iowa's dairy farms was being
processing plants equipped with processed into cheese. Eleven large-volume plants
both driers and separators, which were producing various cured cheeses including ched-
were responsible for over half the dar, Colby, blue, mozzarella, Swiss, Havarti, Neufcha-
state's butter production. Nearly a tel and cream cheeses. At that time Iowa ranked fifth
third of Iowa's butter was being nationally in American cheese manufacturing and
manufactured in the state's 50 me- sixth overall in cured cheese production.19
dium-sized plants, with the remain-
ing 20% being produced in the 100 The Iowa dairy industry of today looks very dif-
small creameries still in operation. In ferent from the 1960s. Both consolidation and compe-
Iowa, where the creamery system tition have drastically reduced the number of cows,
had originated, and where it had dairy farms, and processing plants. The decline is
played an important role in the farm economy, more partly due to consolidation. The average size of each
butter was still being made in Iowa from farm-sepa- operation has increased in that time, with the aver-
rated cream than in any other state. By 1980 there were
only seven creameries still producing butter left in the
state. By 1995, there was one creamery still produc-
ing butter on a periodic basis, located in a business
called Potter's Siding in Tripoli, Bremer County. This
facility stopped making butter around 2000.17
Another emerging trend in Iowa's dairy industry
in the 1960s, which contributed to the decline of
creameries, was the sudden growth of cured cheese
manufacturing. In making the switch to handling
whole milk, many low-volume plants found convert-
ing to cheese processing to be less expensive than be-
coming a combination creamery and drying facility.
While it takes over 20 pounds of milk to make one
pound of butter, only 10 pounds of milk is required
to produce a single pound of cheese. In 1950, Iowa
plants were producing around 10 million pounds of
cheddar cheese, and by 1964 five times this amount
was being made, placing the state fourth nationwide