The price for milk has remained stagnant for 20 years, while production costs continually increase, which means running a dairy in North Carolina has become an increasingly unprofitable enterprise. That partly explains why the number of dairies in the state declined from 1,139 in 1985 to 350 in 2005.

“When we moved our operation here in 1975 (from Buncombe County), there were something like 33 dairies in Henderson County,” said Bradley Johnston, who operates the 1,300-head Tap Root Dairy with his three brothers. “Now there’s five. It’s all been lost to development.”

Buncombe County has 10 dairies, down from 15 in 2000 and 81 in 1978.

Bradley Johnston’s brother, Billy, said their operation had been using more than 3,000 acres of land, but that land has dwindled over the past 18 months by 2,000 acres because the owners they were renting it from sold to housing developers. They were told some of the land sold for upwards of $45,000 an acre.

Source: Citizen-Times.com