With the expansion of the railway and the general improvement of transport systems, more remote farms also wanted a share of the market. Their milk was significantly cheaper, so if delivery could be organised, they rightly believed business might flourish. Yet for the most part the logistics involved were beyond the capacities of the individual farmers. Collecting fresh milk and transporting it hygienically to consumers was a huge challenge. In 1879, a farmers’ cooperative in Munich built a collection point in the countryside, which enabled their members to market their milk without middlemen. This model became so successful that, alongside private milk retailers, there were more than 1000 rural dairy cooperatives in the German Empire by 1894. Technical innovations furthered another development: the Swedish engineer Gustav de Laval built the first centrifugal separator for milk. It accelerated the process of skimming off the cream, alleviating the problem of what to do with unsold milk. The farmers wanted, of course, to sell their entire daily output, while milk retailers and dairies wanted to return unsold quantities to them.

Between 1890 and 1910, the quantity of milk transported by rail rose dramatically throughout the German Empire. In 1886, some 7 million litres of milk were delivered by rail to Dresden; by 1895 this number had risen to about 20 million litres; and by 1910, it had doubled again, to about 40 million litres. It is estimated that a similar amount was transported to the city by horse-drawn vehicles. Freight lines radiated out of the big cities like spider webs, and were constantly extended farther. The bigger a city became, the greater the distance to milk producers. In 1904, Nurnberg and Munich calculated that about 26.3 % of the fresh milk sold in their cities had travelled between 50 and 99 kilometres.

The rise in traffic led to serious logistic problems for the railways. While small express freight trains were able to transport milk cans insulated to keep cold swiftly enough to their destinations, a whole fleet of well-organized, flexible and inexpensive vehicles were required to distribute them. Milk delivery companies were founded – one of the largest was Meierei Bolle in Berlin. In 1890, it had 116 milk wagons in operation, delivering to 3000 locations. In 1891, the company had 700 employees; nine years later, 2000.

The massive inflation in the milk market led to shortages in meat production. It was a vicious cycle: since the production of less perishable dairy products was not as lucrative, everyone wanted to take part in the fresh milk market. Yet the quantity of fresh milk produced greatly exceeded the demand, which meant large quantities of unsold milk were returned to the dairies. They began investing in diversifying their products. The production range grew, with increasing numbers of producers specializing. All these factors destabilised urban milk markets. The large milk processors gradually became less dependent on the farmers and so dominant that small retailers – who had had contracts with the farmers in the surrounding area – could only survive by selling at dumping prices. They passed their losses on to the farmers who demanded their milk be sold exclusively through their own cooperatives. It was dog eat dog and in the end all the different sectors were hopelessly divided. In 1900, the term “milk war” appeared in the press for the first time. Up until 1914 and the outbreak of World War One, milk wars occurred in many cities, including Hamburg, Hanover, Dresden, Dusseldorf and Munich.