If the federal government is to remain in the business of setting the price for milk paid to dairy farmers, the disturbing trend of losing these critical farmers will continue. Along with this loss, we will lose the rural working landscape and positive contributions their businesses provide local communities.
Fred Hough, a Sussex County dairy farmer, laments that his family is managing the last dairy farm on the short 14 mile stretch between Sussex and Newton. In the early 1950's, there were 22 working dairy farms in that area, including the well-known Ideal Farms, then considered the largest Guernsey cow dairy in the world.
Analyzing the regional numbers, the Mid-Atlantic States had 175,185 dairy farms in the mid-1900s; in 2007 that number dropped to 15,881. New England was once home to 27,780 farms that produced milk in 1950; that declined to 2,235 farms in 2007.
What happened in that short 60 years?
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