The dairy processing plant of the Martha’s Vineyard Cooperative Dairy will come to an end March 31, when the operation will be converted to a full time distributorship for H. P. Hood and Sons.

 

The Cooperative Dairy will remain as a business entity, however, with the same stockholders and its Island employees.

 

The business has already begun the change-over which will be completed by the first of the month. The dairy’s wholesale customers and the schools, which are responsible for a vast majority of the dairy’s business at this time of year, are already being sold Hood’s mil and other dairy products.

 

This practice became necessary last weekend, when the sale of the Elisha R. Smith herd, the largest in the cooperative, to a mainland dairy farmer was completed.

 

Now, only the retail customers are still receiving milk produced on the Island. This accounts for between 300 and 400 quarts of milk per day, which is supplied by the few remaining producers in the cooperative.