Dairy Farmers Get More Milk Money
US - It's tough to be a dairy farmer right now. Business costs are soaring and wholesale milk prices are low.
13 November 2006
1 minute read
It can be even tougher to raise cows on prime real estate in the mid-Hudson Valley, where many old dairy farms have been sliced up to make way for subdivisions with $400,000 homes.
"This is the high-rent district, no doubt about it," said farmer Sam Simon, standing in his barn as his milking cows chomped on hay. "But you cannot deny the farmer who has worked for 50 years the fruit of his labor."
Simon's solution to the price pinch is Hudson Valley Fresh, a high-quality milk brand that usually travels less than 35 miles from cow to counter. Consumers willing to pay a bit more get to buy local, and participating farmers fetch a higher price for their milk. Farmers in populated pockets of the Northeast are creating similar local brands to boost income.
"We were basically processing a faceless product, the truck comes and takes it away," said Robin Chesmer, one of the family farmers contributing to a venture called The Farmer's Cow in Connecticut. "We're giving an identity to our milk, giving people a reason to buy our milk."
Source: ap.org
