Some dairy farmers say the outbreak of the coronavirus has led to a surplus of milk as grocery stores and other food retailers struggle to keep pace with consumer buying.

"We work hard to make the milk every day, and we know there are people who need it, so it's really hard to watch," said Stephanie Finn, a farmer in upstate New York.

Finn told WKTV her farm has been dumping milk into their manure pond for the past three days.

Milk prices in the Northeast fell 10% in March, as cheese factories and other customers of dairy farms have scaled back and stores have asked for less product to stock shelves.

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Mark Stephenson, the director of the Center for Dairy Profitability at the University of Wisconsin, said it's one symptom of a national halt in dine-out eating.

"Behind the scenes, there was a lot of reshuffling in the dairy industry," Stephenson told the Washington Examiner. "Cheese plants are seeing greatly reduced demand from retail. I've never seen anything like it before."

Stephenson said per capita cheese consumption in the United States in the 1970s was near 14 pounds per person per year. Last year, it was more than 30 pounds.

"The American consumers are going to have as much dairy as they want," Stephenson said. "What happens is this dramatic falling at the farm level and all the way through."

The effect of the coronavirus on the U.S. agricultural sector has caught the attention of at least one member of Congress.

"Some of you have seen dairies pouring out milk because the supply chain isn’t geared for 100% consumer sales," said Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican. "Same thing is happening for beef and getting worse."



Some of you have seen dairies pouring out milk because the supply chain isn’t geared for 100% consumer sales.



Same thing is happening for beef and getting worse.



Congress should pass my PRIME Act to make it possible for beef to go from farmers to consumers w/o USDA stopping it. — Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) April 6, 2020



President Trump has said he is eager to lift national guidelines recommending Americans stay home to combat the virus and looks forward to reopening the U.S. economy.

"All I can say is right now is things are looking really good, and opening up with a bang will be a great thing," Trump said. "And there is nobody going to be happier than me."

When the virus eventually fades and life in the U.S. goes back to normal, large questions for the dairy industry still linger.

"The question is how many of our dairy producers are going to be able to make it through this," Stephenson said. "This is going to hasten some of the change we've seen over the last several years."

