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Brief History of the Arkansas Dairy Industry

In Arkansas during the 1800s, milk was produced primarily by home milk cows and the milk was either used on the farm or was bartered/sold to neighbors. With the movement of the population from the farms to the cities after the Civil War, it became necessary to produce larger quantities of milk that could be sold to customers who did not have a milk cow.

In 1862 Eleithet Coleman was the first person to deliver milk in Little Rock. His company, Evergreen Dairy, was later merged with other companies to become Coleman Dairy, presently the oldest existing dairy west of the Mississippi River. His son, Fred, took over the business in 1885 and was milking 50 cows (a huge number at the time) and producing 75 gallons of milk per day for delivery in cans to people in the Little Rock area, primarily by ladling the milk at curbside. Similar businesses, including J.M. Moore in Little Rock, were established throughout the state as more and more residents moved to the cities and purchased milk rather than having their own milk cow.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, when the urban population was 4 to 9 percent of the state, most milk in rural areas was produced by a home milk cow and was utilized for home consumption. The trend began to change in 1915 when W.C. (Pop) and Gladys (Mom) Coleman introduced bottles to the Little Rock area. The bottles allowed milk to be distributed to a wider area of people, and the number of dairy cows began to decline.

In 1924 there were 727,160 dairy cows in Arkansas, while there were 1.8 million people. These cows were primarily in rural areas with one to two cows per farm and were Jersey and crossbred cows. Excess milk that was not used on the farm was often sold as cream. There were 25 creameries and 44 ice cream plants distributed throughout the state with farmers either delivering directly to these plants or having the milk picked up in cans by “route” people. In 1932 Ray Yarnell bought Dairyland, and he, his wife and son, Albert, turned it into Yarnell’s Ice Cream Company, which today is the oldest manufacturer in Searcy.

In the 1920s and 1930s, dairy production was emphasized by county agents with the University of Arkansas as a means of economic development in rural communities, especially in the Ozarks and near urban areas. Dairy cows on farms increased from 349,000 in 1930 to 482,000 in 1943, with milk per cow of 2,880 pounds per year. Then, milk per cow began a steady increase as dairy cow numbers declined. Present milk per cow exceeds 13,000 pounds per year as Holsteins compose almost 90 percent of the cows in the state.  The increase in production per cow was due to improved genetics, management and nutrition.

A major change affecting the dairy industry occurred in 1940 when Coleman Dairy installed modern pasteurization equipment, which allowed for storage of milk for an extended period of time. Consumers soon began to expect the increased safety of pasteurized milk, and many of the smaller processing facilities went out of business. The increased shelf-life for milk was necessary as a greater percentage of the state was urban (22 percent), and milk processing plants were becoming fewer but larger. The consolidation of processing units was more rapid than the consolidation of dairy farms during this period of time. Advertisements promoting safety and pasteurization to kill organisms causing tuberculosis and brucellosis made customers aware of the importance of such qualities in milk. This further resulted in decreased use of milk on the farm, thus accelerating the decreased use of milk from home milk cows and the development of larger commercial dairies to produce milk for consolidated processors.

Dairy farm production of milk was approximately equal to the needs of milk processors in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. Central Arkansas Milk Producers in the ’60s and ’70s played a prominent role in the consolidation of milk marketing cooperatives, as its leaders and managers were integral in the formation of Associated Milk Producers, Inc. The managers at the time received national notoriety for illegal payments to politicians as they tried to influence the price of milk at the national level. Wilma Lea Blevins from Boone County was selected as 1964 National Dairy Princess, a significant honor as dairy princess contests were conducted at county and state levels throughout the United States.

In the mid ’80s, a milk diversion program and whole herd buyout from the federal government resulted in decreased milk production and number of dairy farms. In 1991 the Arkansas Dairy Cooperative Association was formed to aid in marketing milk from the state.

In the following years, milk production in the state continued to decline as dairy farmers faced environmental challenges in the mid 1990s and changes in the federal milk marketing order in 2000, which decreased the relative price of milk in Arkansas and the southeastern states compared to major milk-producing areas in the Midwest. The decrease in milk prices paid to farmers led to further declines in milk production and the number of dairy farms. By 2009 the number of dairy farms had declined to less than 140 from 852 in 1989; producers were producing less than 20 percent of the milk needed by processors and less than 15 percent of the milk and milk products consumed in the state.

Arkansas milk processers grew in the late ’90s and early part of the 21st century as the population grew. However by 2006, Prairie Farms of Carlinville, Illinois, had acquired Coleman Dairy and the two Hiland fluid milk processors in Fayetteville and Fort Smith, but the dairies retained their names. Other major processors presently are Kraft Foods at Bentonville, which processes cheese, and Yarnell Ice Cream at Searcy. Also there are three on-farm processers and one small ice cream processor.

As more milk was imported to meet the needs of processors, the cost to consumers rose, especially as fuel prices rose to previously unseen levels in 2007-2008. To ensure a minimum supply of milk for the population of the state, the Arkansas legislature in 2007 established the Arkansas Milk Stabilization Board, composed of a consumer, a retailer, a processor and two dairy farmers. The Board’s goal was to develop a program to stabilize milk production in the state. In 2009 the Arkansas legislature funded for two years a program to provide incentives to state dairy farmers with a goal to stabilize or increase milk production within the state. The program provided quality and production incentives for dairy producers plus counter-cyclical payments to dairy farmers when prices are low.

Note: Richard Bell, Arkansas’ secretary of agriculture who administers payment to dairy producers for the recently passed dairy legislation, is hoping to get stabilization grants to dairy producers for milk produced in July 2009. Stabilization grants will be provided when the price of milk in central Arkansas is less than 70 percent of the weighted costs of production from USDA estimates for Missouri and Tennessee. The amount of the grants will be calculated monthly and paid quarterly and cannot exceed $5/cwt of milk in a month or $2/cwt yearly. Presently, the amount of the payments is being determined; the calculated amount would be $5/cwt, due to the low price of milk relative to the costs of production, but cannot average above $2/cwt for the year.

Payments to dairy producers will be from two programs. Incentive grants are payable yearly at 50 cents per cwt on the increase in milk production for the year when annual milk production exceeds the average of the two preceding years. An additional 50 cents per cwt will be paid if the increased milk contains less than 400,000 SCC. There is no limit on the stabilization grants.

Dairy Princesses Selected

The 2009-2010 Arkansas dairy princesses were selected May 1 in Little Rock in conjunction with the Arkansas Spring Livestock Show. The Arkansas Dairy Princess is April Quattlebaum (left), daughter of Mike and Shelly Quattlebaum, Lincoln County; the Junior Miss Dairy Princess is Katherine Kurz (right), daughter of Rudy and Terri Kurz, Lonoke County; and the Little Miss Dairy Princess is Carlee Summerford (center), daughter of Joe and Kim Summerford, Lonoke County.

DairyMetrics for Arkansas, June 2009

Jodie A. Pennington
Extension Dairy Specialist

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