Dairy farmers feel emergency
The Republican
By Stan Freeman
March 22, 2007

Excerpt...

AMHERST - Ted F. White doesn't have cable, the Internet or a car. The reason, he says, is that he's a Massachusetts dairy farmer.

The seventh generation of his family to milk cows, the Hawley dairyman said the price he is paid for his milk is so low and his operating costs, including for fuel, feed and fertilizer, are so high, that he and other dairy farmers in the state can no longer make a living.

"The existence of the remaining dairy farms in Massachusetts is in question," he told a panel of state agriculture officials yesterday during an emergency hearing held by the state Department of Agricultural Resources at the University of Massachusetts Campus Center.

"We live just as frugally as we possibly can. But even with doing all that, I can't pay my bills," said White, who borrowed a car to get to the hearing.

Faced with what they say are unprecedented financial losses, the state's dairy farmers petitioned the Department of Agricultural Resources to determine if emergency action should be taken to aid their industry. Acting Agriculture Commissioner Scott J. Soares said that he will take comments on the issue until March 29 and then make a decision, which can include raising the minimum price paid Massachusetts farmers for their milk, a price that is set by the federal government monthly.

A second emergency hearing will be held on Tuesday in Boston.

White estimated his costs to produce a gallon of milk are about $1.55. For much of 2006, the price paid to dairy farmers was about $1.25 per gallon. The father of two said he lost $20,727 in 2005. Prices dropped lower in 2006.

"I haven't figured out my taxes for 2006 yet, but I know it's a lot worse," he said.

The number of dairy farms in Massachusetts has fallen from 812 in 1982 to 187 today. The low prices, farmers say, are due mainly to an oversupply of milk, much of it produced on large farms in states to the west, including New Mexico, Texas and California. Those farms may have a thousand cows or more whereas the typical Massachusetts farm has 100 or fewer cows.

State Sen. Stephen M. Brewer, D-Barre, called the situation of dairy farmers "an incredible plight."

He said farms have an importance beyond the milk they produce, that they aid ecotourism, provide open space and create jobs to companies that make the milk into cheese, ice cream and butter. The farms also add to the quality of life in increasingly suburbanized communities....

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