This profile is in active compilation — some details are awaiting a cited source.

Shatto Milk Company bottles milk in returnable glass on the farm that has been in the same family since the late 1800s, at Osborn in Clinton County north of Kansas City. By the mid-1990s low milk prices had made the dairy unsustainable, so Leroy and Barbara Shatto decided to stop selling into the commodity market and bottle their own instead. On 4 June 2003 they made their first delivery, to just under ten stores in the metro. The glass bottle became the most recognizable local food package in Kansas City, the bottles come back to be washed and reused, and the milk can go from cow to store shelf in as little as twelve hours.

Description

Shatto Milk Company is a family dairy at 9406 N Highway 33 in Osborn, Missouri, that processes and bottles all of its own milk on the farm from its own herd.[^1]1 Its glass bottle is probably the most recognizable local food package in Kansas City, and the model behind it is unusual: a vertically integrated single-farm dairy in a market otherwise served by regional co-ops and national processors.

Everything happens on site. The milk is sourced exclusively from the farm’s own herd and processed there, and by the company’s account can go from the cow to the store in as little as twelve hours.1 The glass bottles are returnable — customers bring them back, and they are washed and reused.1

The product range has grown well past white milk: flavored milks, cheese, butter, ice cream, non-dairy options, milk soap and merchandise.1 The farm keeps a country store open Monday to Saturday, 9am to 4pm, and runs farm tours where visitors can see the processing plant and meet the cows — which makes it an agritourism destination as much as a producer.1

Goods and services

  • Milk — hormone-free, bottled in returnable glass1
  • Flavored milks — the range of flavors is a large part of the brand’s identity1
  • Cheese1
  • Butter1
  • Ice cream1
  • Non-dairy options1
  • Milk soap and branded merchandise1
  • Farm country store — Monday-Saturday 09:00-16:001
  • Farm tours — processing plant and cows1
  • Wholesale distribution to Kansas City metro retail stores[^1]

History

Georgia, the youngest, married Ivan Cox. Ivan partnered with his sister-in-law Mary Alice to establish a dairy operation on the farm.[^1] When Ivan Cox retired in the mid-1980s, he left the family farm to Leroy and Barbara Shatto — Barbara being Ivan and Georgia’s daughter.[^1]

The crisis came in the 1990s. Low milk prices were putting local dairies out of business, and by the middle of the decade the farm could no longer sustain itself on commodity milk.2 Rather than sell up, in 2001 Leroy and Barbara Shatto began investigating bottling the milk from the small herd they had left, with the aim of putting the freshest, best-tasting milk on the market.[^1]

On 4 June 2003, Shatto Milk Company made its first farm-fresh delivery, to just under ten retail stores in the Kansas City metro area.[^1] The company’s own summary of what followed is plain: “Leroy and Barbara’s dream came true – the family farm was saved.”[^1]

Sources

Footnotes

  1. Shatto Milk Company — official “About” page — asserts: “Shatto Milk Company is a small family-owned and operated dairy farm” with “more than 100 years” of farming history and “more than 80 years” operating as a dairy; address 9406 N. Highway 33, Osborn, MO 64474; phone 816-930-3862; hours Monday through Saturday 9am to 4pm; a country store open during regular hours; farm tours including the processing plant and the cows; products comprising hormone-free milk, flavored milk varieties, cheese, butter, ice cream, non-dairy options, milk soap and merchandise; milk sourced exclusively from the farm’s own herd and processed on site; “Shatto Milk can go from the cow to the store in as little as 12 hours”; glass bottles are washed and reused when returned by customers. Primary currently-operating proof. (Fetched 2026-08-14.) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14

  2. IN Kansas City Magazine — “Barbara Shatto: Producing the Local Milk We All Recognize” — asserts: in the early 1990s other local dairy farms were going out of business due to low milk prices; by the mid-1990s the farm could no longer sustain itself, prompting the Shattos to investigate bottling their own milk; Shatto Milk Company was founded in 2003 by Leroy and Barb Shatto on their family farm in northwest Missouri; the company became known for glass bottles, old-fashioned flavors and transparency about modern dairy farming. Primary independent source, and the only profile located that centres Barbara Shatto. (Content accessed via search-surfaced summary — see method note.) ↩

Categories

On the record — ks.city/registry/shatto-milk-company · record updated 2026-08-14