Dairy farmers in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County have fallen on hard times. Facing low prices, overproduction, and falling demand, many dairy farms in the region may close in the coming months. Some experts predict that hundreds of herds could be sold off.
Pennsylvania is the No. 6 milk producing state, with 11 billion pounds produced in 2016, and Lancaster County is the state’s top dairy county. But despite this abundance, farmers often find themselves without local processing options. They must often work with out-of-state handlers, who may also charge higher rates to pick up milk from smaller farms. To address this issue, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture recommended earlier this year that two new cheese plants be built in the state.
For several years, a milk glut has suppressed prices for dairy farmers across the country. Farmers seeking new markets have found that many cooperatives aren’t accepting new members due to overproduction, or that most markets are already saturated.
Some dairy farmers point to dairy cooperatives themselves as a cause of low prices. They allege that the biggest cooperatives, Dairy Farmers of America and Land O’ Lakes, have worked with processors to keep farmers’ prices low. Some cooperatives now own processing plants, which farmers allege lowers their incentive to seek the highest price for farmers.