Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
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Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
SWISS VALLEY FARMS
SWISS VALLEY FARMS. In 2008 Swiss Valley Farms Cooperative celebrated its first fifty years of business. In August, 1958 Illinois-Iowa Milk Producers and Quality Milk Association merged to form a new cooperative called MISSISSIPPI VALLEY MILK PRODUCERS ASSOCIATION (MVMPA) headquartered in Davenport. The brand name, Swiss Valley Farms, was first adopted for use of packaging in 1977. The cooperative officially changed its name from MVMPA to Swiss Valley Farms in 1981. The company consolidated all of its milk bottling to its Dubuque facility SWISS VALLEY FARMS/HILLDALE DAIRY DIVISION in 1987.
On its 50th anniversary, the company was a four-state cooperative owned and controlled by more than 1,000 dairy producers. Annual sales were $490 million making Swiss Valley the 16th largest dairy cooperative in the nation. The milk bottling plant in Dubuque employed 200 people. There was a cultured products plant in Cedar Rapids, cheese manufacturing plants in Luana, Iowa, Mindoro and Platteville, Wisconsin, and St. Olaf, Iowa; and Rochester Cheese, a wholly-owned subsidiary in Minnesota with plants in Dalbo, Rochester and Spring Valley.
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Source:
Klein, Emily, "Land of Milk and Honey," Telegraph Herald, March 5, 2008, p. 5
