Southeast Milk, Inc. is a full-service cooperative that operates for the benefit of its members. It was created in 1998, with the merger of two Florida dairy cooperatives, Florida Dairy Farmers' Association and Tampa Independent Dairy Farmers' Association, Inc. It offers dairy supplies and feed mill services to its members and others, the 'profits' of which are returned to its members. SMI has members in four states: Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee. SMI presently markets more than three billion pounds of milk annually. Each cooperative owns its own trucking department to haul the milk. Other business ventures include an ultra-filtration plant and a dairy processing plant. To produce enough milk for the growing population of the Southeast, particularly Florida, the winter months see excess production with milk shipped out of the state. Southwest Milk, Inc. is headquartered in Belleview, FL.