Dairy farmers in parts of Wisconsin are being forced to dump their milk thanks to issues at multiple processing plants.
In the last few weeks, wastewater issues caused Hastings Creamery in northern Minnesota to close for 30 days, leaving the 45 farms -- many in Wisconsin -- who rely on the facility to process their raw milk without anywhere else to turn.
"The problem with being idle for 30 days is there's no place to go with that, no other dairy plant has the capacity or the ability to be able to take that extra volume right now," Pam Jahnke, a farm expert with The Mid-West Farm Report, said. "So unfortunately, it looks like those producers are going to have to dump that milk."
In southwest Wisconsin, a plant run by Associated Milk Producers Incorporated is experiencing labor issues, leaving its capacity diminished.
It comes at a time when the dairy industry is already bursting at the seams.
"What we're hearing from a lot of processors right now is all of them are at full capacity, running just full out because we have a lot of milk out there, not just in Wisconsin, but across the United States," Jahnke said. "No matter what it is, the dairy chain of production right now just can't afford those kinds of glitches."
Source: channel3000.com
Photo Credit: GettyImages-DimaSobko
Categories: Wisconsin, Livestock, Dairy Cattle