"Milchtankstelle"

BERLIN (Reuters) – A German dairy farmer has come up with a novel way to drum up new business -- he opened a "milk filling station."

The "Milchtankstelle" near Cologne in the town of Neunkirchen-Seelscheid dispenses the output of 78 cows from a stainless steel vending machine. Customers can either bring their own empty containers or buy milk bottles to fill up.

"I only had a few customers before I opened the station because they had to come at set milking times, which was a problem," dairy farmer Bruno Stauf told Reuters. "Now they can buy my milk whenever they want."

The milk filling station is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Customers can select the amount of milk they want to purchase at a price of 70 cents per liter. They insert the money, put their container under the nozzle and press a button.

"We were no longer getting very much for our milk from the local dairy," Stauf said, who like many dairy farmers in Germany has felt the squeeze of downward pressure on prices at discount supermarkets. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100908/od_nm/us_germany_farmer