KNOX, Maine — Galen Larrabee of Knox sat down last week and checked the expense ledgers for his 490-cow dairy farm. Over the past 10 months, it hasn’t been a pretty picture.
Feed costs have gone through the barn roof — up by a third over last year at this time. Fuel costs could be doubled by the end of the year. Energy bills — mostly electricity — have been running $6,000 a month.
“We spent $730,000 on grain last year,” Larrabee said. “This year it will be close to a million. Fuel for the first 10 months of 2011 has been $103,000. Last year it was $72,000. We’re paying our bills but there is not a lot left over.”
In the 1950s, Maine had 51,000 herds of dairy cattle. Today there are 304.
But in the overall picture of New England dairy farming, Maine stands out and is considered a success story because of a dairy stabilization program put in place in 2004. Since the installation of the program, called the tier program, Maine has lost 75 dairy farms, or 19 percent of the industry. But the extreme losses in Vermont (52 percent) and New Hampshire (46 percent) over the same time period, show that the Maine program is working.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Bangor Daily News
