Mayfield Dairy Farms history

In 1922, the Mayfield family completed a new milk plant and began marketing the first pasteurized milk between Chattanooga and Knoxville.

In 1923, Mayfield expanded his business, building an industrial milk plant and purchasing an ice-cream business to utilize the cream from his cows.

Mayfield III, and his brother, Scott, mortgaged the family farm to build the most modern milk plant in the southeastern United States when they returned from World War II. In 1950, the company opened its first full-scale production facility in Athens, Tennessee.

Another company first occurred in 1955 when Mayfield converted its milk fleet from ice-cooled to refrigerated trucks.

In 1958, Mayfield became the first dairy in the United States to install an Aerovac vacreator.

To this end, in 1962, the company purchased equipment that enabled it to freeze its packaged ice cream faster, yielding a smoother-textured product.

Mayfield was the best-selling ice cream in Atlanta in 1980, and the following year Time magazine selected Mayfield's ice cream as "the best ice cream in the world."

Then, in 1983, the company introduced its trademark yellow gallon milk jug to block out light and thus protect the flavor and nutrients in milk.

By 1990, Mayfield's annual sales exceeded $110 million and the company's customers spanned from eastern Tennessee to northern Georgia.

By 1990, Mayfield's annual sales exceeded $110 million and the company's customers spanned from eastern Tennessee to northern Georgia. It also set up ice cream distribution centers throughout the southeast, beginning with centers in Tennessee, Virginia, and South Carolina in 1993.

At the same time, poor weather in 1996 led to high costs for soybeans, corn, hay, and other feed grains for cows and put a damper on milk production.

Mayfield entered into an alliance with Barber Dairy in 2000 to distribute Mayfield's ice cream throughout Alabama, creating a line of products called Select.

In 2004, the dairy industry experienced the biggest price hike ever, an increase of 50 to 60 cents per gallon of milk.

Mayfield / Athens is one of 67 plants in the Dean Foods system, according to a 2015 article in Dairy Foods Magazine.

(Athens, TN) – Mayfield Dairy in Athens, TN is the recipient of the Dean Foods CEO Quality Award for ice cream for 2016.

The CEO Quality Award was presented to Mayfield Dairy management and employees in Athens on April 21, 2017 by Dean Foods CEO Ralph Scozzafava.