Prairie Farms Dairy
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| Agricultural marketing cooperative | |
| Industry | Agriculture |
| Founded | 1938 |
| Headquarters | Carlinville, Illinois, United States |
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Area served
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Midwest and Mid-South |
| Products | Dairy |
| Website | www |
Prairie Farms Dairy is a dairy cooperative operating out of Carlinville, Illinois. As a dairy cooperative, Prairie Farms receives milk from producers and converts it into many different products, including cheese, butter, ice cream, sour cream, cottage cheese, various dips, yogurt, and fluid milk. Prairie Farms also produces and sells juices, flavored drinks, and pre-made iced tea.
Originally, the company was named the Producers Creamery of Carlinville, but was renamed Prairie Farms Dairy in 1962. Since its beginning in 1938, the company has expanded largely through mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures with various dairy cooperatives, producers, and manufacturers.
Prairie Farms receives milk from 743 producers, operates twenty four plants, and produces dairy products through thirteen joint venture plants. In 2008, the company reported that its producers produced 1,387,347,510 pounds of milk, averaging 1,873,000 pounds per farm. The sales from the 2007-2008 financial year were about 2.9 billion dollars, a large improvement from the $33,000 sold in the company’s opening year.
At its beginning, Prairie Farms distributed locally in Indiana, but currently distributes its products to fourteen states, most of which are located in the Midwest. These states are Michigan, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Arkansas, North Carolina, Ohio, Missouri, Indiana, and Mississippi.
Prairie Farms Dairy makes large contributions to the economy of the Midwest by employing local residents. In 1999, Prairie Farms stated that they employed twenty-one hundred people in eight Midwest states, and a total of forty-three hundred if they included those employed at joint venture plants.
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Wikipedia