Dairy Farming in Vermont

Dairy Farming in Vermont:

Much has been written about the "Perfect Storm" Vermont's dairy industry is weathering. The myriad factors that affect this stalwart Vermont legacy have been well documented by others. I claim no expertise in the dairy business, convoluted as it is by the patchwork of subsidies and complex supplier-processor-distributor-retailer-consumer dynamics.

However one basic factor struck me as critical in the industry as I traveled across the country during the April and May 2006. After driving through Wisconsin, Minnesota, and other dairy states I concluded that the land is fundamental to the success or failure of the dairy industry in any state (no big revelation here, but the reality was deeply impressed on me). The land is the basis for the crops required to feed dairy cattle cost effectively. Vermont simply cannot be competitive with the states which have broad expanses of flat, easily tillable, apparently rich, land. Because the scale of dairying is larger where the land is more easliy worked, efficiencies and profits are more far more likely than in Vermont.

I know I have understated the complexity of the industry and the markets that devive from milk, but my assessment for Vermont's dairy industry is bleak.

If I were a small dairy farmer in Vermont struggling to make ends meet, I would consider developing different, more profitable uses for my land. I know that's easier said than done and that dairying creates a host of other spinoff revenues for the state, e.g., tourism. However, some have done just that by moving to higher value products such as organic produce and specialty meats.

The temptation will grow to use more Vermont tax revenues to support dairying. That would be a serious mistake, except in those cases where survival of the farm is at risk. Tax revenue to assist farmers would be best used to transform this struggling industry by enabling a change to other agricultural uses for the land.