CHESTER, Ill. 鈥 A statue of a Farm Fresh milk bottle, more than 5 feet tall, stands by a door of the now-closed Chester Dairy Co.
The processing company, founded in 1932, once supplied dozens of area Farm Fresh convenience stores with milk in iconic glass jugs, earning the devotion of residents from Alton to Jonesboro, Illinois.
Now the company鈥檚 headquarters here is all but empty. With Americans drinking almost half the milk per person that they drank 50 years ago, Chester shut down operations at the end of December.
Customers are still upset.
鈥淐ould you bring it back, please?鈥 asked Peggy Cunningham, of Roxana, at the Farm Fresh on Central Avenue in Wood River. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of people who miss it.鈥
Cunningham said she kept one of the Farm Fresh glass bottles, just in case the dairy reopens.
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Chester Dairy did not reply to multiple requests seeking comment.
But the company鈥檚 recovery is unlikely. Thousands of U.S. farmers have gone out of business. Even the country鈥檚 biggest milk processors are hurting.
The largest, Dallas-based Dean Foods, filed for bankruptcy in November. Associated Milk Producers Inc., a Midwest farmers cooperative, announced in the same month it would at a plant in Iowa and another in Minnesota. And 3,300-employee Borden Dairy, also headquartered in Dallas, filed for bankruptcy in January.
Since 1975, the amount of liquid milk consumed by Americans has tumbled more than 40%. Cereal sales are sluggish.
Plant-based milks, meanwhile, have in the past two years, according to a July report from the trade group Plant Based Foods Association and the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit that supports such businesses. Oat milk saw U.S. sales rise 636%, according to market research firm the Nielsen Co., .
Sales of cow鈥檚 milk dropped 2.4% over the same period.
The number of dairy farmers has followed suit.
Missouri, for example, has lost half of its dairy farms in the last decade, dropping to 883 permitted in December 2018 from 1,762 in 2008. The number of milk cows fell to around 83,000 in 2018 from 226,000 in 1990, according to the University of Missouri Extension.
The number of Illinois dairy farms has been declining for decades, too, said Jim Drackley, a professor of dairy science at the University of Illinois. The state counted 565 operating dairy farms in September 2019, down from 666 farms in 2017 and 822 in 2011.
The number of Illinois dairy cows has stayed more constant, he said, at around 95,000 animals, as larger operations gobble up smaller ones.
Global factors have also worked to drive down prices.
In 2015, the European Union that limited milk production. Around the same time, Chinese demand for milk weakened and Russia banned imports. The changes led to a glut in the global milk supply, putting pressure on the United States, which had a healthy export market.
The recent trade war with China has added to the stress: The in June called 2018 tariffs 鈥渁 catastrophic blow for the U.S. dairy industry.鈥
Dairies try to adapt
Dairies are now consolidating, shoring up finances, and experimenting with products they think Americans are more likely to buy.
Dairy Farmers of America, a farmer-owned cooperative, last month to acquire a substantial portion of Dean鈥檚 assets and business for $425 million. Under the proposed deal, the co-op would get 44 of Dean鈥檚 facilities and its associated direct store delivery system.
The co-op sees room for growth: It is investing in manufacturing plants to make more shelf-stable products, which can be stored at room temperature until they鈥檙e opened. It has also seen recent success with wild blueberry and coffee-flavored milk under its Oakhurst brand, according to Doug Dresslaer, director of innovation at the co-op. And last year, it launched a beverage branded Dairy Plus Milk Blends, which blends cow and plant products.
Expect milk products with, for instance, high protein and low sugar, said Paul Ziemnisky, executive vice president of global innovation partnerships for marketing group Dairy Management Inc.
鈥淐onsumers鈥 demand for energy, comfort, health 鈥 you will see a lot more products introduced to meet those needs,鈥 he said.
Snacking and convenience are also popular with consumers, Edwardsville-based dairy cooperative Prairie Farms said in email to the Post-Dispatch, so the company is 鈥減utting more emphasis on products that address those desires.鈥
It has launched five new product lines 鈥 including flavored cottage cheese snack cups, flavored and single-serving milk bottles, and 6-ounce yogurt cups 鈥 with more to come this year.
All of this leaves some dairy farmers bullish on the industry.
Rick Scheer, 49, a fourth-generation farmer outside New Haven in Franklin County, owns 140 Holstein and Jersey cows, and has invested big in his operation: He purchased three milking machines for around $200,000 each, becoming, in 2011, the first robotic dairy in Missouri.
Still, he said the global market affects his farm more now than in years past. A member of the Prairie Farms cooperative, he said he鈥檚 glad the co-op is experimenting with flavors and yogurts and single-servings.
鈥淒airy products still are being consumed,鈥 Scheer said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just changing. It鈥檚 important to change with consumer demands.鈥
No more glass bottles
Prairie Farms took over all Chester Dairy accounts this winter. It began producing milk in Farm Fresh-labeled bottles in late December and servicing the convenience stores Jan. 1. Some of the stores are independently owned; some were owned by Chester Dairy.
In those months, locals who heard of Chester Dairy鈥檚 demise rushed into Charlie Homan鈥檚 Farm Fresh store in Murphysboro, Illinois. The chocolate milk was especially popular, Homan said.
But Prairie Farms had made some changes:
Chester Dairy purchased milk through Dairy Farmers of America; Prairie Farms began sourcing Farm Fresh-labeled milk from dairies in its own cooperative.
And gone were the glass jugs. Prairie Farms鈥 version of Farm Fresh is sold in gallons and half gallons that look similar to old-fashioned glass. But the containers are plastic.
Homan said most of his customers are OK with the new look and source of their milk.
鈥淚t鈥檚 helping they鈥檙e packing some items with Farm Fresh labels,鈥 said Homan, whose family opened the store in 1969.
Still, he estimated around 40% of his milk customers prefer glass bottles. They were happy when he started carrying Oberweis Dairy 鈥 the North Aurora, Illinois-based company has sold milk in glass jugs for more than 90 years.
Chester Dairy, meanwhile, appears still to be closing down its operations.
On a recent visit, a few employees worked behind desks in the house that serves as the company鈥檚 office.
Its processing facility, sandwiched between the town鈥檚 hospital and high school, sat quiet.
The milk-bottle statue, faded and dirty, stood at the door there, one of the few visible reminders of the milk drunk by so many for so long.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.