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Abstract
This is not what you would call an overnight success. When it was established in 1903, the farmer-members of Westby Cooperative Creamery churned out 67,000 pounds of butter. Forty-one years later, the creamery started making cottage cheese (for Bowman Dairy in Chicago). By 1992, the co-op rolled out its first branded product. Westby Cooperative Creamery is not a well-known name to the general public. Its Westby branded products are sold primarily in Wisconsin and Minnesota. But food processors and other dairy brands know this vertically integrated dairy products cooperative. Westby derives over three-quarters of its sales from contract manufacturing of private label and ingredients products, and sales to foodservice institutional customers. Around 2005, the co-op was seeing increased consumer demand for organic products, including dairy foods and beverages. Farmers, including Westby members, were converting their dairies to organic operations. The cooperative's farmers say they take pride in seeing Westby branded products on store shelves.