Danish Cooperative Movement - Cooperative Production

Cooperative Production

This change in production resulted in a need for dairies and slaughterhouses. The only way to pay for such massive investments was for a large group of farmers to share the cost and risk between them, thus creating the cooperative dairies and slaughterhouses. The new situation implied that farmers would buy cheap grain from Russia and feed it to their livestock, selling milk, butter, eggs and meat for a much higher price. This movement also resulted in the creation of both the Danish Bacon and Danish Lurpak Butter brands.

The combination of the Cooperative Movement and the switch away from the production of grain resulted in a great increase in wealth for the average Danish farmer and it became very important in the way Danish farmers perceived themselves. The system was also attempted in other places where Danes settled, for example in the Danish communities in the United States. Before World War I, Denmark gained a foothold on the Russian market, and the Russian Revolution of 1917 cost Danish industry dearly. Attempts to construct cooperative dairies in Russia played a large role in this policy, and a few were actually built there. The Russian Revolution destroyed this work, but new attempts were made in the Baltic States during the Interwar period. Attempts to export the system to Poland were considered in the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to boost the exports of Danish machinery. Attempts to export this system were often linked with attempts to export the Danish system of secondary education for farmers; Højskolebevægelsen.