Advertisement Ohio dairy farmers are having to dump their milk while some grocery stores limit purchase quantities Share Shares Copy Link Copy

The Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation is asking the public to report area grocery stores that are setting a purchasing limit on milk. There was a surge of people flocking to grocery stores when the COVID-19 pandemic began, causing some dairy cases to be low. This prompted many grocery stores to set a limit on the number of gallons of milk customers could purchase.That left many to question: Is there a shortage of milk now? Ohio dairy farmers say no.Farmers in the state told the Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation that they have more than enough milk to supply grocery stores.According to the foundation, dairy farmers across Ohio are having to dump their milk because the milk supply is getting to be too much for the processors. Hartschuh Dairy Farm located in Crawford County, Ohio, posted a video on Facebook Friday showing workers dumping some of their supply of milk.The farm said for the first time in 44 years, its milk hauler didn't run its regular route to take milk from farms to the dairy processing plant.Hartschuh Dairy Farm said every producer who sends their milk to the plant is dumping as much as one to two days of milk production down the drain."The milk plant is full. It cannot hold another drop," Hartschuh Dairy Farm officians wrote on Facebook. "Yesterday delivery trucks, who take the bottled milk to the grocery stores, returned back to the plant with full jugs. Stores didn't have any more room on their shelves to accept delivery. This created a backlog at the milk plant, who had no choice but to leave perfectly good milk at the dairy farms."According to the farm, since the beginning of March, milk prices have plummeted. When grocery stores add a purchasing limit on milk, not as much milk is being sold, causing financial strain on all dairy farmers. Plus, farms cannot sell their milk to Ohio restaurants at this time either, as all restaurants in the state have closed dine-in services."Perhaps the most worrisome effect of this milk-dumping is the mental and emotional strain it puts on farmers. It took over an hour for our milk tank to drain today. That's a long time to watch the time, money and care you've invested into your cows go to waste. Our hearts sank as 31,000 pounds, or over 3,600 gallons, dumped down the drain and flowed into our manure lagoon," Hartschuh Dairy Farm said.The Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation said it's working with dairy farms to ask Ohio grocery stores to stop limiting the purchase of milk and dairy foods.The foundation is asking everyone to report stores that are enforcing purchasing limits. They're encouraging people to take a picture and submit it to them; nothing the location, date and time. You can submit it to Erin.Brown@Drink-Milk.com. Once the agency receives your submission, members will contact the store and inquire about their purchasing limit.