On February 20, 1924, the Board of Directors of Mid-West Dairymen’s Company met in Chicago to approve the by-laws of a dairy cooperative, organized under the Cooperative Marketing Act of the State of Illinois passed June 21, 1923. The purpose of the new organization was “to be a non-profit cooperative agricultural association without capital stock organized for the mutual help and benefit of its members and to provide better and more economical methods of marketing the dairy products of its members through cooperation...” In 1924 the main office was located in Chicago, but the original plan encompassed six geographical territories - - Indiana, Wisconsin, Rockford East, Rockford West, Winnebago County, Illinois outside of Winnebago County.
Membership in the cooperative declined during the Depression so that by May 1932 there was only one operating district, Rockford: as a result, the headquarters moved to Rockford in 1932. For a short time the Producers Milk Company also existed as a subsidiary non-profit cooperative association handling financial matters and accumulating capital stock. In the 1930’s the cooperative dealt with the Rockford’s Milk Dealers Association and others to obtain higher prices for dairy products.
In response to the Depression and a crisis of overproduction in agriculture, the New Deal’s Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 sought to aid agriculture by reestablishing farm prices at parity level, prices comparable to those in the 1909-1914 base period. It also sought to control production. Since 1933 an increasingly important task of dairy cooperatives, including MidWest Dairymen’s Company, has been to lobby the federal government concerning prices, surpluses, foreign trade, and protection from substitutes for dairy products. As part of the Illinois Milk Producers Association, MidWest also lobbied in Springfield. It has actively followed, if not participated in, federal, state, and city milk control legislation, for example, Rockford’s milk codes concerning health and pasteurized milk in the 1940’s to federal pricing and marketing orders in the 1950’s and 1960’s. In 1980 it continues to advocate federal milk support prices, restrictions on imports, and support for and funding of the School Lunch Program and Special Milk Program. Over the years it has also sought to increase milk and dairy consumption through the advertising media and has worked with many other dairy organizations and cooperatives.
Mid-West Dairymen’s Company was founded in an “era of cooperatives” in the 1920’s. The Capper-Volstead Act of 1922 had legalized marketing associations and defined terms for producers to organize. Mid-West’s basic aim - - to benefit dairy producers - - has not changed since its founding. In times of relative prosperity or outright depression, Mid-West has been part of the larger cooperative movement which has tried to solve problems of agricultural overproduction by voluntary cooperation and governmental aid. It continues today to maintain a strong membership.
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