LITCHFIELD, Mich. —Processing plants in Michigan have reached capacity, forcing farmers to dump milk into state approved disposal sites. According to Scott Ferry of Ferry Farms in Litchfield, MI, the surplus is the result of production rising faster than the processors had planned.
“Our family, our employees and our cows work so hard every single day, 365 days a year,” said Ferry, “and to make a decision to do this, the picture that you saw (of milk being dumped) is one of the hardest things that we have ever had to do.”
Ferry called the situation a “perfect storm,” citing great conditions for the cows, saying that production for this year is up seven percent from last year.
“With milk production being up, plus Michigan is a phenomenal place to milk cows because we’ve got great weather, we’ve got great season, changing seasons, and we had access to clean fresh water,” said Ferry.
Currently, milk processing plants are operating nearly 20 percent over their capacity.
Milk dumping has become an issue in other areas of the country as well, and Ferry is now looking at shipping milk to out of state processors n the meantime.
“We have to move milk outside the borders of our own state,” said Ferry. “Exporting milk is extremely important in our industry, not only outside of our state, but outside of our country.”
“There are fewer and fewer farmers every single day, but we have a lot of mouths to feed and a growing population,” said Ferry.
“I hope every family in Michigan will maybe take a minute and buy an extra gallon of milk this week or eat a little bit more cheese or butter, yogurt,” said Ferry.
Source: Fox17 Western Michigan