While Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) may be the largest dairy cooperative, by international standards there are five farmer-owned entities that are larger than DFA, according to a survey published by Rabobank. Four of those cooperatives are based in Europe, while the fifth markets roughly 95 percent of the milk in New Zealand. Even so, DFA is a major player in a country that is the largest producer of cow's milk. We recently attended the 17th annual meeting of the co-op with members from coast to coast and came away with these nuggets on the size and scope of DFA's business in the U.S. dairy arena.
- As the title suggests, if DFA were a publically traded company, it would have ranked 159 on the Fortune 500 list of tops companies in America. (It is not ranked because it is a co-op.)
- DFA had a stake in 77 dairy processing facilities across the U.S. That included two new plants: the dairy ingredients facilities in Fallon, Nev., and Linwood, N.Y. A third facility is under construction in Cass City, Mich.
- There were 8,768 farms that shipped to DFA in 2014. That included 1,200 new members that joined as a result of the merger with Dairylea co-op.
- Average herd size among DFA members is 230 cows compared to a U.S. average herd size of 204 cows. Overall, just 354 farms produce half of the co-ops milk with 8,284 farms producing the other half.
- The co-op marketed 63.7 billion pounds of milk last year. That was 31 percent of the U.S. milk supply. Each day, 3,000 truckloads of milk are transported.
- DFA commercial investments processed 40 percent of its milk into products and sold the remaining 60 percent to other processors. Not that long ago, "sold milk" was closer to 70 percent, so the co-op is making moves to process more member milk.
- The co-op exported 190 million pounds of dairy products to 55 different countries last year.
(c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2015
March 23, 2015
