Years ago as I rode the school bus through the small town of Lamartine (the name was later changed to Perrysville) a familiar sight would be the milkman, Ray Umpleby, delivering milk to the local residents. The empty milk bottles would be waiting on the steps of the houses with money inside. Mr. Umpleby would leave the full ones and retrieve the empty ones to be refilled for the next delivery. He was a dairy farmer who lived on a very clean and neat farm at the edge of town. The milk came from his small herd of beautiful Jersey cows.

I recently read an article that asked, “Could the milkman be coming back?” In the 1950’s more than half of the milk produced was home delivered. Much of our country had the service. With the current trend for consumers to order so many different things over the internet, could ordering dairy products by way of the internet become popular? Consumers order all types of things on the internet and have them delivered. In some areas groceries are being ordered on the computer and delivered directly to the homes and the consumer makes no trips to the supermarket. Why not make dairy products available to be ordered from the processor or special dairies and delivered to people’s homes just as they used to be?

There are already a few companies who do deliver and they say their customer base is growing. Many of the suppliers are small, family owned dairies providing non-homogenized and low pasturized products, using both plastic containers and old style glass bottles. The cost of the milk is higher but the consumers are willing to pay the price for a product that tastes better. There are different ideas including memberships allowing consumers to choose which dairy their milk comes from. Deliveries are on a set schedule. Some companies offer other items including all types of dairy products, fresh produce and more. The old service of delivering milk is becoming new again!

Dairymen and dairy women are constantly being told that we need to find ways to encourage the consumers to buy and use more milk and other dairy products. Having those products delivered would save today’s busy consumer the time it takes to run to the local store to pick up that needed gallon of milk or other dairy product. Perhaps more would be consumed by the family if the milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, cottage cheese, ice cream and dairy treats, arrived at the home on a regular schedule. The kids would be delighted to know when the ice cream bars, Snickers bars and other dairy treats would be arriving!