California dairy feed market requires feed sales representatives to check inventory for the customers and call in the orders. This is a very time consuming and tedious task. In other markets this is the responsibility of the dairy producer. The tasks and responsibilities of feed companies and their representatives are changing however. In general, with the changing needs of the dairy businesses, feed sales representatives are having to become consultants in order to insure that the benefit of their feed programs are maximized through better management. This allows companies to sell total packages of product and services and differentiate themselves from the competition. Not many companies have moved that far yet, but it is the direction the influential companies in the industry are headed.
The dairy industry in California is very large and very progressive. It produced 18.7% of the milk in the Unites States in 1999. The state has about 1.5 million cows so there is great potential for companies to expand their business. However, although the number of cows has been increasing, the number farms has been decreasing. Today, there are less than 3,000 dairy farms in California. This is still a large number but in the future there will be fewer customers for which these companies will compete. The ones that will remain will be the most progressive and business-savy producers who will require much more from their feed companies than just timely delivery of commodities.
There are several players in the market today and the combination varies
depending on the area of the state. Some of the large companies are present throughout the state and other smaller ones are only present either in the southern or northern part of the state. The main competitors are Associated Feed, A.L. Gilbert Company, PennyNewman, Coast Grains, Foster Farms, J.D. Heiskell & Company, Hatch Milling and
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