BOOKMONGER
How conflict curdled the dairy industry
BY BARBARA LLOYD MCMICHAEL
This week’s book
Years ago, my husband and I
stopped by the Tillamook County
Fair on our honeymoon. It was a
wholesome celebration of cows,
quilts and flower displays. There
was no indication that Tillamook
had ever been anything but a dairy
idyll.
But reading “Cheese War” this
past week exposed a strife that once
curdled relationships among local
dairy farmers throughout the 1960s.
As the daughters of a dairy
farming couple that was involved in
the conflict, sisters Marilyn Milne
and Linda Kirk had an up-close
view of the struggles. Their parents,
George and Barbara Milne, eventu-
ally wound up on the losing side of
the conflict.
Now, more than half a century
later, the sisters are presenting their
parents’ story. Early in “Cheese
War,” Milne notes that County
Creamery, a marketing umbrella for
individual milk and cheese process-
ing cooperatives, and the ultimate
victor after a long series of legal
battles and business ploys, commis-
sioned a book of its own some 20
years ago. That book is titled “The
Tillamook Way.”
Milne hopes that she and her sis-
ter can add to the historical record
by presenting their parents’ points
of view. Kirk provides personal
anecdotes that supplement many
chapters, while Milne sorts through
the business details and legal tan-
gles that took place. “It was a fight
sparked by the discovery of wrong-
doing,” Milne writes.
The authors’ dad was president
of the Cheese and Dairy Associa-
tion, a producer cooperative that
was a member of County Creamery.
This was at a time when the associ-
ation’s board learned that the man-
ager of County Creamery had made
some unauthorized loans to distrib-
utors, cutting into farmers’ profits.
The association board’s con-
frontation with the manager was
the first of many arguments. These
were exacerbated by a swiftly
14 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
‘Cheese War’ by Marilyn Milne and
Linda Kirk
Oregon State University Press –
232 pp – $24.95
changing dairy industry that was
moving from small local enter-
prises to more consolidated facto-
ries. Profit margins for dairy prod-
ucts were collapsing, and farmers
were left with piles of cow pies
and not much else to show for their
work.
County Creamery, the out-
fit that was supposed to be repre-
senting the dairy farmers’ products
to outside markets, persisted in its
sloppy, perhaps illicit, accounting
procedures, leaving many farmers
suspicious that they weren’t getting
their due.
But not everyone wanted to rock
the boat. Squabbles at local meet-
ings turned into legal battles, some-
times in courtrooms as far away
as Portland. Back at the barn,
cows still needed to be milked
twice a day. Family members were
expected to pitch in, and sometimes
neighbors had to be relied upon.
“Cheese War” chronicles the
alliances, fault lines, fevered
debates and exhaustion that once
gripped the Tillamook community.
Traces of animosity linger to this
day.
But an insightful epilogue exam-
ines what dairy farming in Tilla-
mook looks like in the 21st cen-
tury. There are now fewer farms
but more cows, sophisticated vet-
erinary care, systems of produc-
tion, governance and environmental
stewardship. The latter has merited
Tillamook County Creamery Asso-
ciation a Certified B Corporation
designation. And then there’s over a
billion dollars in annual sales.
The Bookmonger is Barbara
Lloyd McMichael, who writes this
weekly column focusing on books,
authors and publishers of the
Pacific Northwest. Contact her at
barbaralmcm@gmail.com.
‘Cheese War’ is by Marilyn Milne and Linda Kirk.