Article content continued

“We had over 350 people participate in those five (Wisconsin) meetings — three of those meetings were standing room only,” said Darin Von Ruden, president of the Wisconsin Farmers Union. “We ended up way underestimating the amount of interest.”

His group held another four packed sessions after that, playing a recording of the Canadians’ presentation.

Meanwhile, the Dairy Farmers of America, the country’s largest milk-producers’ co-operative, passed a resolution at its annual meeting in March asking staff to investigate adopting something like Canada’s system for the organization’s 14,000 farmers.

Supply management aims to restrict production to meet demand, while allowing limited imports, ideally ensuring a stable price. Low prices in the U.S. are generally blamed on an oversupply of milk there.

Even agriculture groups more conservative than Von Ruden’s farmers union, while convinced the idea will go nowhere, acknowledge that curiosity is mounting.

“In these difficult times, when milk prices are very depressed, everybody wants to look at all the options,” said James Holte, president of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau, the state’s largest agricultural association. “There are a number of people interested in it and for good reason.”

There is just a massive bloodletting going on, and it's really ugly

With many farmers earning less for their milk than it costs to generate, there has been a steady exodus from the business in places like Wisconsin, the second-biggest milk-producing state and largest U.S. cheese maker.

About 500 dairy producers sold off their herds last year, while over 50 went out of business just last month, in a state with about 8,200 dairy farms.

And there have been a spate of suicides, though often disguised as farm accidents to ensure that loved ones’ receive life insurance payouts, said John Peck of Family Farm Defenders, based in Madison, Wi.

“Every time the phone rings, that’s what I worry about,” he said. “There is just a massive bloodletting going on, and it’s really ugly.”

Hans Breitenmoser Jr., who milks 450 cows near Merrill, Wi., and showed up at one of the meetings with the Ontario farmers, has seen the effects close at hand. A neighbouring dairy farmer went out of business recently, while the large-animal vet, feed mill and farm-implement dealers the community used to support have all disappeared in recent years.

“As we go through these boom and bust cycles in agriculture, we have a great potential to make ghost towns out of some of these small communities,” Breitenmoser said.