Vermont dairy co-op dumps approximately 100,000 gallons of milk to raise market prices in northeast

BURLINGTON, Vt. -  In Vermont, the Northeast, and across the U.S., the answer to the iconic marketing question, "Got Milk?" is yes...  and too much.

The 400 dairy producers of the St. Albans Co-op Creamery increased production by two-percent this year, but now the product is being dumped by the truckload as market saturation is tanking prices.

"Milk is going up and your demand is going down," said the Co-op's Tom Gates. Gates says getting some of the value is better than none. The group is converting excess raw farm milk into cheese and other non-perishable dairy products. "And we're one of just a few plants in the whole Northeast that has that ability to do that, so we're working with others in the industry to try to maintain as much of the value as we possibly can."

Thus far, the organization is only dumping skim milk, but that's a first for the Co-op's president, who has been with the group for more than three decades. They're dumping milk in manure pits on farms. It's a similar story for Massachusetts based Co-op Agri-Mark, which counts 250 Vermont dairy farms among its members.

"The 32 years I've been at the Co-op we've never had to dump milk before. We've always had the processing capacity to handle that milk," said Agri-Mark's Doug DiMento.
     
While the Co-op creamery could not provide an estimate of how many gallons of skim milk have been dumped, Agri-Mark officials put their group's figure in the hundreds of thousands. They say converting its product is better than being left without a market, and estimate 95-percent of their product is still being shipped and sold despite dumps. "There's so much milk around that there's people undercutting other people, other co-ops, other milk handlers with cheaper milk," DiMento said. "It's really put the entire industry in quite the tailspin."

Agri-Mark estimates that producers will receive about $1.57 per gallon which is down substantially compared to last year's $2.22, especially when you deal by the truck-full. 

Co-op creamery spokespeople say they're not in a position to provide the excess skim milk to food shelves in a packaging that could accommodate such facilities.

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