Rick Barrett | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Seven of Wisconsin’s largest farm groups have asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to use its extensive purchasing power to buy large amounts of dry milk, butter and cheese that normally would be going to restaurants and the food-service industry.

Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association, Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative, Dairy Business Association, Cooperative Network, Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation, Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Farmers Union say the current circumstances, far beyond their control, are beginning to result in farms having no place to accept their milk.

In fact, this week some large Wisconsin dairy operations have begun dumping milk because there is no buyer for it.

“With 80 percent of Americans under order to shelter in their homes, hundreds of thousands of restaurants, schools, and other food service outlets have closed or significantly reduced offerings, which means cheese and butter manufacturers have lost their largest market. While retail sales have increased in past weeks, they are now leveling, and orders are slowing. Dairy manufacturers and processors also have seen their export markets decimated,” the Wisconsin farm groups said in their letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.

“Commodity dairy prices have plummeted and will result in milk prices lower than many farms can handle to sustain long-term viability,” the letter said.

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The federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act directed $9.5 billion to a dedicated disaster relief fund for agriculture, $25 billion for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, $14 billion to the Commodity Credit Corp. Program and $450 million to support food banks.

"This bill enables unprecedented support for farmers and unprecedented commodity purchases, and we need USDA to bring these forms of aid to bear immediately," the Wisconsin farm groups said.

They are asking the USDA to use that money to provide direct relief to dairy farmers and to purchase dairy commodities in bulk and in formats that normally would be used by restaurants and food-service businesses.

"Direct relief to dairy farmers and a substantial purchase of dairy commodities by USDA can ensure our industry will remain fiscally able to function in its primary role of feeding the nation and the world," the letter said.

The groups are also asking the USDA to look for ways to “make farmers whole” for milk that’s produced but has to be dumped, or for which they’ve received drastically reduced payments.

More farms are likely to experience milk dumping in the coming weeks. The recent dairy crisis that began in late 2014 underscored changes in agriculture that have been taking place for decades but sped up more than many expected in 2019 and early this year.

In the last few years, thousands of Wisconsin dairy farmers lost money practically every day they milked cows as an oversupplied market kept prices depressed. Waves of small and midsize farms shut down because they didn’t benefit from economies of scale found on larger operations.

Dairyland in Distress: Dairyland in Distress