Village Squire, 1978-04, Page 20Quality control is a big item in the dairy business toda}.
Butter big
b uszness
today
The little factory of 1896
looks tinv beside
today's Mitchell operation
, PG. 18. VILLAGE SQUIRE/APRIL 1978.
BY DEBBIE RANNEY AND KEITH ROULSTON
Most of us, when we say "pass the butter" don't know where
that butter came from or :hat %:cnI into its making. It's ironic
because we live in one of the richest dairy farming areas in the
country and every year millions of pounds of butter are
manufactured in local plants.
One such plant is that of Stacey Brothers in Mitchell. Once
there were small butter factories in nearly every community, just
as once cheese factories abounded. Today the factories are few
and far between, but those that are left are huge.
Stacey Brothers Limited grew out of the days of the old cheese
factories and butter factories. It was begun by John Stacey in
1895 in Willowgrove, about four miles north of Mitchell. In those
days cheese was the product produced. As with all such factories
Willowgrove produced only six months a year, the summer
months when there was glut of milk because the cattle were on
pasture. The plant handled up to 15,000 pounds of milk per day.
In 1901 to make year-round work, the company installed butter
making equipment and cream was made into butter the winter
months.
Today the plant has grown enormously with 1,400,000 pounds
of milk processed in a 24-hour period coming in large bulk
tankers to the plant on Mitchell's main street. The factory moved
from Willogrove in 1940 but still retains the Willowgrove name