About 7 o’clock Tuesday night, Golden E Dairy got
the call that any dairy farmer would dread. They were being asked to
dump 25,000 gallons of fresh milk a day because there was no place for
it to go as the marketplace for dairy products has been gutted by the
closure of restaurants, schools, hotels and food service businesses.
An
hour later, the family-run farm near West Bend, Wisconsin, opened the
spigot and started flushing its milk into a wastewater lagoon — 220,000
pounds a day through next Monday.
It was
surreal, said Ryan Elbe, whose parents, Chris and Tracey Elbe, started
the farm in 1991 with about 80 cows and grew it into an operation that
today milks 2,400.
“We thought this would never
happen,” Elbe said. “Everybody’s rushing to the grocery store to get
food, and we have food that’s literally being dumped down the drain.”
But the Wisconsin dairy industry has been dealt a
harsh blow from the economy that’s been slammed by coronavirus
shutdowns. About one-third of the state’s dairy products, mostly cheese,
are sold in the food service trade.
Economic impact:As coronavirus spread, economy lost 701,000 jobs in March
Dairy
farmers, whose product is highly perishable, are seeing processing
plants close or curb production, forcing them to flush their milk down
the drain if there’s no other buyer.
“I think
that a lot of milk will all of a sudden be dumped. Everyone across the
industry is feeling distressed now,” said Julie Sweney, spokeswoman for
FarmFirst Dairy Cooperative in Madison.
“Over
the last several hours I have heard this is unfolding. There is
definitely a strain on markets now. The whole consumption rate for milk
is so much different than it was before COVID-19,” Sweney said.
“With the uncertainty of COVID-19 and evolving
consumer buying habits, we are seeing demand for dairy products change.
While we initially saw increased demand at grocery stores as consumers
stocked up on many products, like dairy … the retail demand is starting
to level off. For this reason, we anticipate that milk will be more
readily available at grocery stores in the coming weeks,” Coady added.
Flushing milk down the drain is heart-wrenching, Elbe said, even if a farmer is being reimbursed for it by their cooperative.
The
wasted product represents a massive amount of work on the farm that
includes the planting and harvesting of crops and raising youngstock
into milking cows.
“This is a lot of milk, planning and hard work going up in flames,” Elbe said.
Dairy veterinarian Kent Bindl, from Sheboygan, put it this way Wednesday:
“For
me today, we have reached a new level of despair. As a veterinarian
for the past 18 years, I have seen the resiliency and optimistic nature
of my clients be tried over and over again. However, today is
different. Many have been told there is no place to process today's
loads and milk is being pumped into their manure storage facilities. The
pain these producers are feeling today is palpable.”
More
farms are likely to experience milk dumping in the coming weeks. The
recent dairy crisis that began in late 2014 underscored changes in
agriculture that have been taking place for decades but sped up more
than many expected.
More on the dairy crisis:Dairyland in Distress
Coronavirus and dairy:Coronavirus has hit Wisconsin dairy farms especially hard -- some farmers may even have to dump milk
In
the last few years, thousands of Wisconsin dairy farmers lost money
practically every day they milked cows as an oversupplied market kept
prices depressed. Waves of small and midsize farms shut down because
they didn’t benefit from economies of scale found on larger operations.
“The
disposal of milk, which we hoped to avoid, has begun, and that is very
troubling,” said Daniel Smith, president and CEO of Cooperative Network,
a Wisconsin and Minnesota group that represents cooperatives in dozens
of fields including agriculture, health care and utilities.
Farmers Dump Milk - 3 April 2020 (1:53 min)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/04/03/coronavirus-forces-dairy-farmers-dump-milk-wisconsin-covid-19/2939959001/
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