Rick Peters Says Concerns Of Milk’s Future Are High
The news appears to be getting better for some Wisconsin Dairy Farmers.
Farm groups confirmed Thursday that all but a few dairy farmers who lost Grassland Dairy as their main milk buyer will now have other buyers. Reports indicate at least some farms will not get the prices they received from Grassland, but it will be enough to keep them going. Fifty-eight Wisconsin farms that were contracted with Grassland are having their sales cut off Monday because of a trade dispute with Canada. John Pagel of Green Bay’s Dairy Business Milk Marketing Cooperative says 19 of its 23 affected farmers have new milk buyers, at least in the short run. The affected farms have between 80 and three-thousand cows.
Some local dairy farmers are not completely at ease with the recent issues in the dairy industry. Local diary farmer Rick Peters said he is unsure just how bad things can get, and the chance of it trickling down to his farm, is leading to some tough days.
“I have farmed since I was 19. You just assume that you produce milk, it gets picked up and you get paid for it” said Peters. “Now the thought is, am I going to go to the mailbox tomorrow and have a letter that says I’m done?”
Peters said he is in a different situation, and that is why is milk is still be transported. “Our milk is hauled by independent truckers and not trucks from Grassland” said Peters.
“Through a couple of goofy circumstances, our farm and another nearby farmer were able to get on a truck of a Manawa trucker who was just starting out, and without that, we would have been one of those cut” added Peters. “Now you have the fear of them chopping more and we are the next one.”