Farm In is a commercial association, which consists of eigth different associations, who group together 600 agricultural manufacturers.

Piiratud Vastutusega SCE E-Piim is a dairy company owned by Estonian farmers that has more than 100 years experiences in milk processing. Company has two manufacturing facilities that produce cheese, milk based powders and butter. Letter E stands for Estonian milk. E-Piim is export- oriented company and by using its name E-Piim it introduces Estonian dairy industry to the world. Long time traditions and climatically favorable location in strong agricultural area have formed the basis of successful milk processing at high level. Pure Estonian nature is excellent premise of producing milk of very high quality and pure taste.

Both E-Piim dairy factories were founded in the beginning of 20th century. Põltsamaa dairy, that is located in the middle of Estonia, was founded in 1910, and Järva-Jaani dairy, that is located 70 km to the North, was founded 1911. Today Põltsamaa dairy is cheese factory that has a year’s capacity of 10 000 tons of cheese, and Järva-Jaani dairy is powder factory that has a year’s capacity of 8 000 tons of powders. Both factories are certified by BRC Food quality certificates. Järva-Jaani dairy has additionally Halal and Kosher certificates. Raw milk is collected from about 200 farmers, and in a year they process about 120 000 raw produce. The purpose of E-Piim is to process milk at high level, and offer the best to the world that is made from Estonian milk.

Homepage: www.epiim.ee/en/

The commercial association Jõgevamaa Põllumajandustootjate Liit was established in 1992, and it members’ are 22 private and legal person, most of them are agricultural businesses.  The commercial association was founded to jointly sell agricultural produce and buy agricultural inputs.

By jointly buying it is possible to achieve a lower price, and by jointly selling a higher price. In the early days the members cooperation consisted mainly of buying fertilizers and pesticides, but now the main business is marketing milk produce. Not only members are selling through the commercial association,but also valued co-partners from Pärnu-, Viljandi-, Põlva-, Tartu- and Lääne-Virumaa.

Fertilizers, pesticides, but also high-energy food, like rape-seed cake and maize, are jointly bought. In addition the association arranges trainings, training trips, and consultations, and cooperates with other dairy associations to coordinate the sale of the produce.

Overall the association sells milk from 35 different manufacturers to Põltsamaa Meierei, Maag and Tere, which quantitatively makes 20% of all milk produced in Estonia.

The association’s further purpose would be to establish or purchase cooperative dairy industry.

Saaremaa Piimaühistu members are dairy manufacturers from Saaremaa, Muhumaa and Hiiumaa. It has been a association since 1996. The purpose of Saaremaa Piimaühistu is to organize members’ joint activities, consultations, procurements for inputs and creating outputs for products’ in appraisal processes and distribution. In 2015 there were 48 members in the association, and about 70 operating farms, which some manufacture organic milk. There are 5100 dairy cows, as well as young animals. West Estonian islands’ flora and clean natural environment ensure dairy’s pure taste and high quality. Dairy’s appraisal happens in Estonians most contemporary industry in Saaremaa.

Saaremaa Piimaühistu members achieve through joint procurements wide-ranged and low-priced agricultural inputs, primarily because of participating in the commercial association Farm In. By 2014 at least 75% of Saaremaa Piimaühistu members’ self-produced dairy has been distributed to PLC Saaremaa Piimaühistu, which the association owns. PLC Saaremaa Piimaühistu development strategy is to develop sustainable production basis in Saaremaa, and further structural expansion out of Saare county. In addition growing in co-operation with other Estonian associations and international partners. The aim is to ensure the association members’ sustainable management, and the best dairy price in the region. PLC Saaremaa Piimaühistu subsidiary is PLC Pinus, which offers logistical and distributional support to the dairy association members’ output. PLC Pinus field of activity is perishable food products’ retail and wholesale business. Since 2001 there is a contemprorary refrigerated warehouse in Tallinn.

Estonian Beef Breeders Association was officially established on the 21st of July 2000. At the time there were eight members in the association, who owned  about 1000 beef animals.

First president of the Estonian Beef Breeders Association was Leino Vessart (2000-2011), and Vallo Kruusimägi and Aigar Suurmaa also held positions in the management board. Since 2011 Aldo Vaan is the new president.

At the moment the association has 341 members, which include seven honorary members, and one honorary president – Leino Vessart. The management board has nine members.

According to ARIB (PRIA) data there are 67 996 beef animals in Estonia, from which 24 522 are suckler cows. Members of the association raise about half of Estonian’s beef animals.

The association’s objectives are to popularize raising and breeding of the beef animals.

• Marketing beef animals and beef meat in the interest of the association’s members;
• Organising animal breeding related jobs, creating breeding programmes, keeping herd books and releasing pedigree certificates, conducting the beef animals’ performance monitoring;
• Arrange different events (reunions, study trips, exhibitions, seminars, etc);
• Cooperation with Animal Breeders Association of Estonia;
• Participating in international cooperation projects and funds, establishing the funds;
• Promotion, advertising, consultation, and schooling (less than 6 months long courses) regarding above-mentioned areas of activities.

Homepage: www.lihaveis.ee

Public limited company (PLC) Metsaküla Piim was established in 1996. Company’s main area of activity is the breeding of dairy cattle, at a moderate rate raising cereal grains and rape. In 2013 the PLC used 1650 hectares, of which 500 hectares were for cereal and rape, remaining soil was for either a short-term or a long-term grassland. This was produced into silage for dairy cattles’ animal feed. PLC Metsaküla Piim’s farms has 580 dairy cows and 500 young animals. PLC has 24 workers.

Up to 5-day-old calves are kept in the calving barns’ individual cubicles. From 6-day-old to 6-month-old calves are kept free ranged with deep littered chaffed straw.  6-month-old young animals are kept free ranged in a cold barn built in 2005. Dairy cows are kept in an insulated free range barn, which has eight DeLaval’s milking robots. In 2013 average milking production for a cow was approximately 9300 kg.

Homepage: www.metsakylapiim.ee

Eestimaa Piimatootjate Ühistu was founded in 1997 to gather dairy manufacturers for a purpose of jointly buying inputs and selling dairy. In 2014 the association had 36 members, of whom 20 were legal persons and 16 were self-employed persons. The association members owned 3945 dairy cows.

In 2014 Eestimaa Piimatootjate Ühistu cattle sizes were:

Up to 50 cows – 18 herds

51-100 cows – 11 herds

101-200 cows – 2 herds

201-500 cows – 3 herds

Over 500 cows – 2 herds

In 2014 the association selled on average 84 metric tons of milk per day. It is not known how much grassland members own or how many young animals they have. In addition to dairy cows some members breed beef animals.

From 1999 up until 2009 the association owned a dairy plant in Vändra, where Estonian cheese was being manufactured. In 2009 the association joined with Eesti Juustu Tootmise OÜ, and after that the manufacturing in Eestimaa Piimatootjate Ühistu ended. Currently the association intermediates the selling of dairy and stocking the inputs.

Rakvere Piimaühistu TÜ was founded in 1992, and it centers a big part of Lääne-Virumaa’s raw milk production. The association belongs among the six most biggest dairy associations in Estonia. 18 members and three businesses, which distribute their dairy production through Rakvere Piimaühistu TÜ, belong in the association. 300 jobs in Lääne-Virumaa are made available by members, producing about 95-100 metric tons of raw milk per day.

Rakvere Piimaühistu TÜ sells dairy through EPIKO TÜ, being also one of the five founders of the association. Rakvere Piimaühistu TÜ is through EPIKO TÜ one of the founders of Farm In. For the moment, members selling jointly animals have developed into Rakvere Lihaühistu TÜ, which handles Virumaa’s cattle breeders’ animals sales.

The main field of activities of Rakvere Piimaühistu TÜ are:

• Breeding of dairy cattle, producing raw milk;
• Stocking and selling the dairy produced by  association members;
• Developing different financial products for the association members;
• Performing services for the association members for acquiring necessary equipment, animal feed, fertilizers and other;
• Arranging continuing education and consultations for the members;
• Offering veterinarian services.

Homepage: www.rpy.ee