NY Milk Cooperative Loses Queens Contract

CONSTABLEVILLE — West Leyden dairy farmer Karl G. Rauscher is among 13 members of the Oneida-Lewis Milk Producers Cooperative who are scrambling to find a new home for their milk after a processor ended the group’s contract.

Elmhurst Dairy of Jamaica, Queens, gave a 30-day notice to the farmer-owned co-op based in Constableville, in southern Lewis County, and its contract ended on Wednesday, Mr. Rauscher said.

The co-op, meanwhile, is trying to reach short-term agreements to sell milk on the “spot market” with processors so that its members don’t have to dump it, he said. The co-op has reached an agreement with a cheese plant in Western New York to sell its milk to the plant through Tuesday, he said, but its members could soon have no alternative but to dump their milk if other agreements aren’t reached.

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