dairy farming

With higher costs and uncertainties looming in the shadow of a tariff dispute with Canada, the Maine Dairy Task Force is asking the state to full y fund supplemental payments program.

The only dairy producer north of Portland has announced it will halt milk production by the end of the month.

The state Task Force to Support Dairy Farms in Maine met for the first time Wednesday to come up with recommendations for how the state might help farms be more profitable.

While Gov. Janet Mills had proposed increasing the dairy stabilization program payments by 25%, Democrats on the budget-writing committee recommending limiting that increase to 10%.

Maine has nearly 7,000 farms remaining, the fewest in at least 25 years, according to the latest U.S. Agricultural Census. The state lost more than 560 farms over a five-year period that ended in 2022.

In a ceremonial groundbreaking at Flood Brothers Farm in Clinton Wednesday, representatives of Summit Utilities, a natural gas company, said the digester will receive manure from a half dozen dairy farms in central Maine.

Farmer-owned cooperative Organic Valley is offering a market for 80 Northeast dairy farms who are losing their contracts with Horizon Organic and Maple Hill Creamery.

Some 109 Maine dairy farms shut down over the past nine years, according to Maine Milk Commission data. With fewer outlets buying milk, the price pressure on dairy farmers likely will continue. If more fail, Mainers ultimately could have fewer local choices in the dairy aisle.

Farmworkers and their supporters called on Hannaford to join the Milk with Dignity program.

State regulators have taken a central Maine dairy farm off line after discovering levels of a contaminant as high as 10,000 times the actionable limit.The…