Mayfield Dairy Farms is a United States dairy product

Dairy product

Dairy products are generally defined as foods produced from cow's or domestic buffalo's milk. They are usually high-energy-yielding food products. A production plant for such processing is called a dairy or a dairy factory. Raw milk for processing comes mainly from cows, and, to a lesser extent,...

s company, with its headquarters in Athens, Tennessee

Athens, Tennessee

Athens is a city in McMinn County, Tennessee, United States. It is the county seat of McMinn County and the principal city of the Athens Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is part of the larger Chattanooga-Cleveland-Athens Combined Statistical Area. The population was 13,220 at the 2000...

 and additional production plants in Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...

, and Braselton, Georgia

Braselton, Georgia

Braselton is a town in Barrow, Gwinnett, Hall, and Jackson Counties in the U.S. state of Georgia, about 40 miles northeast of Atlanta. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 7,511....

. Since 1990 it has been under the ownership of Dean Foods

Dean Foods

Dean Foods is an American food and beverage company with two operating divisions: Fresh Dairy Direct and WhiteWave-Morningstar. The company maintains plants and distributors in the United States and the United Kingdom. Dean Foods products are sold throughout the USA.-History:In 1925, Samuel E...

.

History

The company was founded in 1923 by T.B. Mayfield, Jr., and is now run by his grandson, Scottie Mayfield

Scottie Mayfield

Scottie Mayfield is the president of Mayfield Dairy Farms. Mayfield was a 1973 graduate of Georgia Tech's College of Management.-References:...

. It employs nearly 2000 people. Mayfield products are sold in ten southeastern states

Southeastern United States

The Southeastern United States, colloquially referred to as the Southeast, is the eastern portion of the Southern United States. It is one of the most populous regions in the United States of America....

 (Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Kentucky, Virginia, Ohio, and Mississippi).

Innovations

Mayfield is known for a history of innovation. The company boasts that founder T.B. Mayfield had the first milk

Milk

Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...

 plant in the area capable of pasteurizing

Pasteurization

Pasteurization is a process of heating a food, usually liquid, to a specific temperature for a definite length of time, and then cooling it immediately. This process slows microbial growth in food...

 milk.

In 1970 Mayfield's Athens plant was the first in the industry to successfully implement in-plant blow-molding for production of plastic milk jugs. In 1988 Mayfield was the first dairy to use an opaque plastic milk jug that protects milk from ultraviolet light. In 1995, Mayfield launched the single-serve Chug milk bottle for Dean Foods. The single-serve bottle increased milk consumption by letting milk compete with single-serving soft drink

Soft drink

A soft drink is a non-alcoholic beverage that typically contains water , a sweetener, and a flavoring agent...

s. In 2002 its Clik-Top re-sealable ice cream

Ice cream

Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...

 carton, including a break-seal that makes the package easier to open and a locking tab to keep the carton closed during storage, was greeted as a packaging first.

In 2006 Mayfield started a multi-author company blog

Blog

A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...

, featuring posts by CEO Scottie Mayfield, stories from inside the business, news about new ice cream flavors, and articles submitted by customers. The Mayfield Dairy Blog was featured on the Diva Marketing Blog as an example of the use of social media

Social media

The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,...

 in marketing. In 2007 the company won an Effie Award, presented by the New York American Marketing Association

American Marketing Association

The American Marketing Association is a professional association for marketers. As of 2008 it had approximately 40,000 members. There are 76 professional chapters and 250 collegiate chapters across the United States....

, for successfully marketing four new ice cream

Ice cream

Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...

 flavors without discounts, using a campaign in which customers were encouraged to "vote" for their favorite new flavor.

Visitor centers

The company maintains two visitor centers, one in Athens, Tennessee

Athens, Tennessee

Athens is a city in McMinn County, Tennessee, United States. It is the county seat of McMinn County and the principal city of the Athens Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is part of the larger Chattanooga-Cleveland-Athens Combined Statistical Area. The population was 13,220 at the 2000...

 and the other in Braselton, Georgia

Braselton, Georgia

Braselton is a town in Barrow, Gwinnett, Hall, and Jackson Counties in the U.S. state of Georgia, about 40 miles northeast of Atlanta. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 7,511....

 and offers tours of its production plants

Factory tour

A factory tour Involves organised visits to factories to see things being manufactured and processes at work. Breweries and distilleries, together with manufacturers of clothes, pottery and glass, are amongst the most popular factory visits...

in those locations.