Dairy Farmers of America, Inc. (DFA) is a national milk

Milk

Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...

 marketing cooperative in the United States. It is owned by and serves nearly 16,000 dairy farmer members representing more than 9,000 dairy farms in 48 states. DFA buys raw milk from its members and sells milk and derivative products (dairy products, food components, ingredients, and shelf-stable dairy products) to wholesale buyers. Net sales in 2010 were $9.8 billion, representing about 30 percent of the raw milk production of the United States.

Headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

, DFA is divided into seven geographical areas. Each area elects farmer members to serve on DFA’s Board of Directors, which governs the cooperative.

History

DFA was formed in 1998 through the merger of four dairy cooperatives: the Southern region of Associated Milk Producers, Inc.; Mid-America Dairymen, Inc.; Milk Marketing, Inc.; and Western Dairymen Cooperative, Inc. Officials from the four cooperatives determined that merging would give the nation’s dairy farmers a fair voice in national policy making and the ability to address the needs of national customers. Since then, four other cooperatives have become a part of DFA – Independent Cooperative Milk Producers Association, Valley of Virginia Milk Producers Association, California Cooperative Creamery and Black Hills Milk Producers.

Current operations and services

Today, DFA markets its members’ milk nationally and internationally and has joint ventures and partnerships with several food and processing companies. The cooperative is led by Rick Smith, president and chief executive officer, and DFA's farmer-leader Board of Directors. Member services include health insurance options, price risk management tools, purchasing programs, scholarship opportunities, leadership development programs, consulting services and more.

Brands

• Borden Cheese
  Borden (company)
  Borden, Inc., was an American producer of food and beverage products, consumer products, and industrial products. At one time, the company was the largest U.S. producer of dairy and pasta products. Its food division, Borden Foods, was based in Columbus, Ohio, and focused primarily on pasta and...
  
  
• Cache Valley Cheese
• Keller's Creamery Butter
  • Plugrá
    Plugrá
    Plugrá is a butter made in the United States by Keller's Creamery. It is made with a higher butterfat content than most American butter , resulting in a richer flavor and lower water content. Thus it is particularly useful in making pastry, particularly flakey items like puff pastry and croissants...
    
     Butter
  • Breakstone's Butter (trademark licensed from Kraft Foods
    Kraft Foods
    Kraft Foods Inc. is an American confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate. It markets many brands in more than 170 countries. 12 of its brands annually earn more than $1 billion worldwide: Cadbury, Jacobs, Kraft, LU, Maxwell House, Milka, Nabisco, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Trident, Tang...
    
    )
• Sport Shake

Anti-trust issues

In 2008, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and DFA agreed to a $12 million sttlement, which concluded an investigation into past trading activities by DFA on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). As of 2009, 17 dairy farmers are suing DFA, alleging that it is engaged in anticompetitive behavior by setting up a monopolistic "cartel" in the southeastern United States.