The dairy

Milk, because of its difficult conservation, has been destined for local consumption since the dawn of time. Thanks to pasteurization, from the 1870s onwards, its collection and packaging were industrialised and its distribution expanded. Thus appeared in the breeding regions, dairies like Cailly dairy to feed heavily-consuming cities.

The collection of milk

At the end of the milking of the cows, the milk was filtered and stored by the farmers in tin pitchers with a capacity of 20 litres, brought to the side of the roads. This facilitated daily pickup by horse-drawn carts, first, and then, from the 1920s, by lorries. The pitchers were regularly renovated (tinning) and Firmin Orfeuille, a tinsmith in Cailly, was in charge of that at the beginning of the 20th century.

As they were particularly heavy, they were gradually replaced by lighter aluminum pitchers which required less maintenance.

From the 1970s, milk was stored on the farm in refrigerated tanks and picked up every two days by a tanker lorry.

Conditioning

The Cailly dairy, dubbed model dairy when created, specialized in pasteurization, skimming and de-wheying of milk for on-site manufacturing of butter and the bottling of one-litre glass bottles later completed in 1956, by packaging in carton.

The dairy

Built at the end of the 19th century, the dairy then drained its waste and smelly washing water into the nearby river, often dry. The installation of a pipe in 1908 allowed the discharges to be moved 120 metres downstream.

Several owners succeeded each other at the head of the company: Jean Motte in 1897 followed by the Segain Augustin and Co. Society, the Louis Larave Limited Company in 1908, the Jonot, Benech, Blot and Co. Society in 1922, the Anonymous Society of Reunited Farmers (SAFR) in 1933, the Lepetit company in 1972 and finally the Bel Group (Besnier Lactalis) in 1979 which dismantled it in 1986.

At the height of its activity in the 1970s, it employed up to 70 people, collecting nearly 26 396 309 gallons of milk per year from 700 surrounding farms.

It was converted in 1972 into cheese making: the Lepetit camembert, supplemented by the collection of milk in 1979.

It closed its doors for good in 1986.