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20    WISCONSIN CHEESE MAKERS' ASSOCIATION
dime we have been able to save has gone right back into the cheese
maker's pockets. There are two or three things absolutely necessary
in buying this way. We must be absolutely honest and square with
ourselves and with the man we buy from. We must accept the things
we buy and pay for them when we agree to. We are able to get
jobbers' prices on most of the things we buy.
I don't know as there is much else. Our system of buying is very
simple-it is the simplest way there is. If you had 500 cheese makers
in this house today and four hundred of them would each agree to buy
four thousand bandages or five gallons of rennet, the order would be
pooled and placed in the hands of a committee and one man would
do the buying for them all.
COST OF MAKING CHEESE IN 1934 AND 1935
E. C. DAMROW
In again preparing a "Cost of Cheese Making," as requested
by
your Secretary, to encourage every cheese maker to figure his own
cost, I want to impress on every cheese maker the vital importance
of knowing just on which side of the Profit and Loss Account he
stands.
In these cost sheets that I prepared, the average cost is taken on
two different size factories; namely, a factory running about 6,000
pounds in the flush and one running about 18,000 pounds in the lush.
When tabulating these figures, we take the costs for the average co-
operative factory that was built of late years, where also a residence
must be provided for the cheese maker who is operating the factory.
Where it is not necessary to provide a residence, the investment in
the factory may be considerably less; and in factories that are pretty
well run down and kept very poorly in repair, the investment may
also be low.
The cheese maker either works on a monthly salary or on a pound-
age basis. We are figuring the salary in the smaller factory at $100 a
month, just for a matter of straight figuring, but this may be more or
less in various factories. We have tried to tabulate these figures in
such a way that it will be easy for any cheese maker or the officers
of a cooperative factory to sit down in one afternoon or evening, com-
pile all their figures, and check up just exactly what it cost them to
make cheese during the year.
They should also consider the depreciation on building and equip-
ment, interest on money invested or borrowed, insurance on building
and equipment, and taxes. It doesn't make any difference if the
cheese factory is run cooperatively or is individually owned, these
same items of overhead or burden must be covered.
In some factories these fixed expenses have not been figured for the
past few years, and this handicaps them a lot when they have to re-
place equipment or make necessary repairs to their buildings, unless