The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
⏩ Farmers face hardships as dairy demand drops.
SOUTHBURY — Ben Platt thought this would be the first year since 2014 that he and fellow farmers would make a profit off selling milk.
But that changed when the coronavirus pandemic hit the state, said the owner of Platt Farm, which has been in his family for nine generations.
“We’re going to be looking at getting paid 1970s prices for our milk here come May and June,” Platt said. “Just imagine trying to survive off of salaries made 40 years ago with prices of everything today.”
The price of milk has dropped from $19 per hundred pounds to $13 per hundred pounds, reports New England Dairy, a nonprofit education organization that represents local dairy farmers.
A decrease in demand from schools, restaurants and other institutions closed during the pandemic has forced some farmers to dump their milk, the organization said. Meanwhile, food pantries are need of dairy products.
Dairy is one of the biggest industries hit by the pandemic in the state, said Bonnie Burr, with the University of Connecticut Agriculture Extension Office.
Restaurants and schools are the biggest milk buyers, locally, regionally and nationally. With both closed or operating at a fraction of their usual scale, dairy farmers are struggling to find places to send their milk, especially because dairy storage is already at capacity and challenges in the supply chain, she said
“The supply chain is definitely something that will need a deeper dive,” Burr said. “We’re going to have to see how we can do a better job because we were not prepared for this.”
Platt noted he has not personally needed to dump any milk, but said the Vermont-based Cabot Creamery Cooperative he and 800 other farmers are a part of has done so at its plants.
Supply chain challenges
Dairy cows can’t be turned off during a pandemic, Burr said. They’ll continue to produce milk every day, meaning farmers will have a daily product — the first link in the supply chain.
From there, truck drivers need to pick up the milk and bring it to processing plants that turn the milk into the actual products sold to the consumer, she said. Truck drivers are again needed to bring the product to the end user, whether that’s a grocery store or the schools and restaurants.
If people are sick at any of these steps, it could delay and throw off the chain, creating backlogs, Burr said. If the end user isn’t there, then the product sits there, she said.
Restaurants, schools and other institutions that are closed purchase 30 percent of fluid milk, New England Dairy said.
Platt said his milk is still being picked up every other day on schedule. He has an 800-gallon tank with enough room to store 48 hours worth of supply. He has 60 cows that he milks and another 60 younger cows that do not produce milk yet.
His farm is considered small, he said. Other farms may milk 2,500 cows and have 7,000 to 8,000 gallons of storage.
The average cow produces 2,320 gallons of milk annually, according to the dairy cattle extension.
“There’s a few farms that are most likely producing in a day what we would produce in a month, if not more,” Platt said.
An added challenge is the processing plants are set up to create various sized products, including milk, cheese, yogurt and butter, Burr said. The plants aren’t equipped to shift production based on market demands.
Now, the industrial-sized items aren’t as needed, yet they still need to be made. The plant can’t shift to make more of the smaller sizes a regular consumer would buy at the grocery store, Burr said.
Regular consumers could buy these larger sizes, but the average person doesn’t have space in their refrigerator for a five-pound block of butter or a 10-gallon container of yogurt, Burr said.
Donating products
Groups like 4-H, the United Way and various food banks are working with farmers to help get these items to those in need.
For example, 23,000 pounds of yogurt and sour cream from the Cabot Creamery Cooperative were donated Wednesday to food pantries homeless shelters and families in need throughout Fairfield, Litchfield and New London counties.
“It makes no sense that farmers are dumping milk while there are people who desperately need food,” said Bill Davenport, the Litchfield County 4-H UConn Extension educator. “If we can help move some dairy products out of the surplus storage, the dairy plants can then have more room to accept more milk from the farmers so that we can slow down the wasteful dumping of milk at the farms, while helping to keep the dairy farmers in business.”
Davenport, who grew up on a dairy farm in Litchfield and owns dairy cows in his brother’s herd in Ancram, N.Y., organized the effort.
Members of Litchfield County 4-H, the youth development component of UConn Extension, and other volunteers distributed the products.
“I hope that our actions will increase awareness of the issue and encourage others to help do the same across Connecticut and the region so that we can help move more milk and dairy products out of the surplus and into the refrigerators of people who desperately need it,” Davenport said in a statement.
The dairy products donated from Cabot Creamery included 11,000 pounds of sour cream and 12,600 pounds of yogurt.
The 4-H also delivered milk to 23 food pantries in Litchfied and Fairfield counties last month. That time, Litchfield Locker lent their refrigerated truck to pick up 1,440 half gallons of milk from Guida’s Dairy and Dairy Farmers of America.
Still, volunteers cannot break down industrialsized items into smaller portions to give out to families for food safety reasons, Burr said.
Instead, groups are looking for unused commercial kitchens, where people could make products to give out using these large quantities, such as loaves of bread or other baked goods, she said.
Platt said he does not have a way to pasteurize his milk to make and sell yogurt, for example.
“We’re tied pretty much to the milk market orders and what we get paid for their milk,” said Platt, adding his hay business can offset losses a bit.
He is eligible for the Paycheck Protection Program, which was part of the coronavirus relief bill, while other measures are being considered at the federal level.
“Everything combined is definitely not going to be covering the losses by any means, but anything is a help,” Platt said.