9 minute read
MEMBER PROFILE
JEFFERSON BULK MILK CO-OP Overcomes Decades of Obstacles to Work Together, Stay Together
The Northeast Dairy Foods Association is pleased to welcome the Jefferson Bulk Milk Co-op as its most recent member. The northern New York state co-op has a long history in the dairy industry.
In the early part of January 1964, the milk market for Jefferson County (New York) farmers was economically threatened. Dealers in the Southern Tier of New York State had started charging 10 cents per cwt. For hauling bulk milk. This act, along with pressure to build larger milk houses and put in larger bulk tanks by Jefferson County dealers, made it the right time to organize an operating cooperative. A group of farmers was invited to sit down and discuss possibilities. From this meeting, 11 farmers committed to sell their milk as a unit and work together to organize a bulk milk cooperative in Jefferson County.
An organizational meeting was held that February, and the 11 farmers signed contracts. Mert Evans and Sid Langdon of the Metropolitan Bargaining Agency with Henry Hughes of the New York State Agriculture Department turned the documents and the expertise to formulate the by-laws and the incorporation papers. The first 11 members served as the interim board of directors with Charles Ellingsworth as interim president until the first annual meeting. Ellingsworth then served as manager, and J.W. Bedor was made the first president.
The first Jefferson Bulk office was located in the back of Ellingsworth’s home on Massey Street Road in Watertown, New York. Farm products such as milk filters, electric fencers and limited soap suppliers were sold out of a shed on the Ellingsworth property. Orders were taken for fertilizer to be delivered directly to member farms. Wholesale groceries could also be ordered and picked up at the office.
The first milk sales committee was comprised of Junior Bedor, Edward Cobbs, Harold Getman and Ellingsworth. After many stormy sessions, the milk was sold to the United Milk Products Corporation plant in Adams Center. It was agreed that the first milk would be delivered on April 1, 1964. By that date, the co-op had grown to 27 members, mostly from the towns of Houndsfield, Brownville and Orleans.
The United Milk Products Corp. was of tremendous help in getting the co-op started — only to cause its demise 13 months later. The company was forced into bankruptcy when an office of the corporation embezzled $800,000 of its operating cash!
To save the co-op, it was necessary to operate the Adams Center plant for three months with some volunteer help from members. This set up the machinery, with the help of the staff of the Metropolitan Bargaining Agency, to recover most of the money that was owed to the Jefferson Bulk Milk members at the time of the bankruptcy. By a unique type of financing arranged with the Watertown National Bank, every farmer was paid for the milk, and, with that, the Jefferson Bulk Milk Co-op, a real force in the North Country milk marketing arena, was born.
After innumerable setbacks, directors meetings and sometimes sleepless nights, the co-op held its own. During the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, tremendous changes were taking place in the milk business, and the Jefferson Bulk Milk Co-op began selling milk in New York City. During this transition, the co-op built a reload station in Evans Mills and started marketing with other co-ops in the North Country. Other markets for milk were Hoffman and Dudo in New Breme, Crowley foods in Lafargeville and the Adams Cheese plant. The surplus milk during this period forced the co-op into its own cheese manufacturing facility in Redfield with Frank Raiti as the cheesemaker who served the co-op for several years. Jefferson Bulk Milk owns the Redfield Brand Cheese name and franchise.
Milk haulers at the time were Max Murray, Leonard Bery and H. Houghtalking. Later, J.W. Bedor took over all of the hauling followed by Don Ferguson with the help from M&T Milk Hauling and Jim Stockwell. Up until 2004, the haulers owned their trucks, and the co-op owned the tanks on the trucks. At this time, the truckers took over ownership of the tanks also. Lyden Berry was the first milk inspector, followed by Richard Planty, Donald Ogborn and Mark Shelmidine from Dairylea.
Jefferson Bulk Milk, along with Mert Evens helped form other co-ops, such as Cape Vincent, Marble City in Governeur and Northern New York Bulk in Canton. Jefferson Bulk Milk did all the paperwork for the other co-op’s members, including all state and federal reports. It also did the paperwork for Philadelphia (NY) Co-op for a time.
Around 1968, a farm supply route truck was on the road visiting patrons to sell farm products. During this time, Jefferson Bulk Milk started selling Anchor medicines and its own cleaning supplies from Klenzade Company. The supply department grew so large that, in 1969, an empty building on NYS Route 12 was rented to serve as a warehouse for the farm products.
As an employee, Fred McIntosh, was a repairman that would travel to member farms and repair whatever was needed. The bill was then deducted off of their milk checks. Accounts were set up with many stores and businesses in Watertown, offering a discount and the ability for purchases to be charged to their milk checks.
In 1972, the co-op purchased property on Arsenal Street Road from Marion Faye. She operated a small grocery store out of a building in the center of the property and lived in the back of the store. Faye was allowed to put a house trailer in and live on the west side of the
lot. The grocery store became a cheese store, selling the co-op’s own cheese curd and 40-pound blocks of cheddar. Offices for the co-op were located upstairs. Gas pumps were located out front, and the co-op sold gas until the mid ‘80s. A new building was put up to not only serve as the Farm Supply Store but also to store and age the cheese made from surplus milk. The new huge walk-in cooler was twice the size of today’s coolers and was often full of cheese to be sold. The members could not be paid until the cheese was both aged and sold. To cover this gap in payments, the co-op had to borrow money each month to pay its members.
By the mid ‘70s, Jefferson Bulk Milk was in debt for between $300,000 and $400,000, and the banks threatened to close the co-ops doors. After many meetings, the banks agreed to give it a second chance. Ellingsworth, who was the manager, went on the road selling every pound of cheese in storage, and the debt was finally paid off.
Jefferson Bulk Milk Co-op wanted to serve its members and be an asset in the dairy industry. Seasonal supplies, such as baler twine, were bought by the trailer load and sold to members at bargain prices. Each spring, a mountain of 1,500 to 2,000 fence posts would appear in the yard to be sold. Member volunteers would help unload these of supplies by hand.
Membership for the co-op peaked in 1974 at 104 members. Operating capital for the co-op came from dues of 10 cents per cwt with a certificate issues at the end of each year. These certificates were always paid in full on a ten-year revolving basis.
Annual meetings were held with live music and square dancing usually topping off the evening, Many years, a summer picnic would be organized at the beach with everyone bringing a dish to pass.
During the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, the co-op was a member of the Allied Federated Co-ops of Canton and marketed their milk through them. In search of better marketing opportunities, Jefferson Bulk Milk left Allied in 1982 and became a member of NEDCO. In 1985, the co-op faced yet another setback when NEDCO filed for bankruptcy. Co-op farmers along with farmers across the state did not receive payments for 44 days of milk. But, with some outside financial help and hard work by the board of directors and its dedicated members, Jefferson Bulk Milk was able to secure loans to cover the milk. This was to be paid back through milk check deductions over the next three years.
Known for the excellent quality of its milk, Jefferson Bulk Milk became an affiliate member of Dairylea and started delivering to the newly opened Great Lakes Cheese plant in Adams. This excellent marketing relationship lasted 34 years through 2018. During this time, co-op dues were reduced to 5 centers per cwt. and paid back on a five-year revolving basis.
With smaller farms slowly disappearing, the farm supply side of the business became increasingly harder to remain competitive. In 2001, the inventory was sold off to Lowville Farmers Co-op, and it operated a satellite store there until 2005. In 2006, the supply building was partitioned off, and the co-op moved to the back of the building. The front was leased to become the home of In Motion Dance Studio, LLC. 2018 ended along with a marketing agreement with Dairy Farmers of America. Beginning in 2019, Jefferson Bulk Milk was marketing its own milk. In 2019, the co-op contracted all of its milk with Kraft Heinz in Lowville.
Unfortunately, the agreement with Kraft Heinz wasn’t continued into 2020, and, on Jan. 1, 2020, the co-op found itself with no contract for two-thirds of its milk. The other third that was contracted was with Upstate Niagara for its North Country Dairy milk plant in North Lawrence.
Jefferson Bulk Milk thought that 2020 was going to be rough with two-thirds of its milk being sold on the spot market every day. Little did the co-op know that 2020 was going to take an even bigger turn for the worse when COVID-19 completely crashed the markets. From the end of March 2020 to end of April 2020, Jefferson Bulk Milk dumped two loads of milk every day into its farms manure pits — a total of 4,650,267 pounds of milk! Through that trying time, Jefferson Bulk Milk lost four member farms.
After the dumping was over in April, the co-op continued to sell milk on the spot market at a depressed price until September 2020, when it was able to secure the remaining two loads per day with Upstate Niagara in a contract until the end of the year.
Beginning in 2021, the co-op continued its agreement with Upstate Niagara for all of its milk and breathed a sigh of relief to be able to provide some stability to its member owners again.
This piece was written with contributions from Charles Ellingsworth, Thelma Curtis Reardon and Dan Reed and Summer Zehr. *All locations mentioned in this article are in New York State unless otherwise noted.
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