Dairying in Iowa has been an essential part of most farm operations. The skim milk resulting from farm separation of the cream has been a useful supplement to com in the swine feeding operations which constitute the most important single phase of Iowa agriculture. Because of this relationship between dairying and hog farming, the dairy processing industry in Iowa has been based primarily on one product, butter, and most of this has been manufactured in creameries receiving only farm-separated cream. Many of these creameries were established 50-60 years ago when the roads and transportation facilities of the time dictated the need for many local plants which tended to remain small. Over the years this system of dairy marketing has persisted in Iowa. In other important dairy sections of the United States, there has been a trend to concentrate dairy processing in larger plants manufacturing a number of different products.