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Dairy co-ops maintain steady market position.

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Dairy cooperative members in the United States marketed more than 150 billion pounds of milk in 2007, maintaining a steady market share for co-ops during the five-year period between 2002 and 2007. This and other findings are the results of a survey of all dairy cooperatives conducted by the Cooperative Programs of USDA Rural Development. The survey is done every five years, with the most recent questionnaire collecting information on the milk-marketing operations of dairy cooperatives for fiscal 2007.

The 152.5 billion pounds of milk that dairy co-op member-producers marketed in 2007 was 9.6 percent more than in 2002. This volume represented 82.6 percent of the total milk marketed by farmers nationally, a slight increase in market share from 82.4 percent recorded five years earlier.

The number of dairy cooperatives during this period decreased from 194 to 155. There were 45 cooperatives that processed or manufactured dairy products, the same number as in 2002. Twelve cooperatives only operated receiving stations, while 98 co-ops had no milk-handling facilities. Most of the latter 98 performed bargaining functions; a few others were "check-off" co-ops that provided milk testing and other services.

Fewer farms, more milk

The 2007 survey shows that there has been no slowing of the trend toward fewer farmers producing more milk, nor in the westward drift of the dairy industry.

In 2007, there were 49,675 co-op member producers who marketed milk in the United States, 19 percent (11,715) fewer than five years earlier. The greatest declines were in the East North Central and...

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