Article in the anniversary book: Bjergby and Mygdal - glimpses and traces of life in the two parishes:

 

The dairy was founded in 1887 and put into use in 1888.

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At the end of the winter of 1887, four younger men from Bjergby were invited to a meeting at Snevre School, where teacher Henriksen, Poulstrup, told about his experiences when starting a cooperative dairy. According to newspaper reports, old Hans Pedersen from Bjergby spoke warmly in favour of the establishment of a dairy - there were also opponents, e.g. proprietor Olesen, Asdal, who spoke against and warned the farm owners that they should beware of joint liability.

 

There was silence about the matter for some time, but then Hans Pedersen and teacher Eskildsen called a new meeting. Although the opponents also met this time, it was now decided to establish a new cooperative dairy. There has apparently been a lot of discussion about where the dairy should be located - whether it should be located in Snevre or in Bjergby - the result was a mid-way location, where a plot of land was bought from Peter Andersen, Houbak, for DKK 300.

 

The first dairy manager was N.M. Mortensen from Saxild close to Odder, but only from 24 June 1888 to 1 April 1889, when he was replaced by Chr. Hartmann. Five years later he left and was replaced by Niels Rokkjær, who was manager until 1 May 1907, when he was replaced by M. Christensen, who was manager until his death in 1927. Martin Christensen was a very skilled dairyman who, as the 3rd dairy manager in Denmark in 1920 received the Butter Export Association's gold medal for fine butter. In 1908, a dairy had been established in Asdal, to which some of Houbak's shareholders joined.

In 1896 the board decided to purchase fodder for the cooperative

owners - in 1899 they sent a lick of butter to the English soldiers.

In 1915, it was decided to provide guarantees for sharecroppers

who did not have seed and who could not get credit.

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                                                                                                 The first chairman was teacher Eskildsen - but only for approx. a year,  after which for a number of years he was a highly

valued accountant. For most chairmen it was only a year or

two however, mention can be made of Chr. Hvims from

1933-39, Anders Christensen from 1939-49 and Kr. Dahl

from 1950 and probably until 1964. The last The chairman

was Henning Grøntved from Mygdal.

 

 

The building, which date from 1936, have since had several owners.

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For a number of years, the drits were made at SkagenLandevej no. 16 – in a period called Bødkerhuset. As early as 1909, A   cooper Chr. Andersen - in 1915 the cooper's name was Kristian Munk. Andreas Sørensen and his wife Ingrid, who lived in the house in a Photo of the old dairy - approx. year 1900 several years around 1950, cycled to Hjørring, where they in the villa quarters sold butter from Houbak Dairy - maybe that's why she was called the Butter Queen.