Following five years of major decline in dairy sales across the region, dairy cooperative Agri-Mark Inc. is planning to implement a new system aimed at regulating prices.
Beginning Jan. 1, 2020, the co-op will introduce a limit for the amount of milk a farmer can produce in any given month.
The new limit will be different for each supplier, based on the farm’s most productive month in the previous calendar year. If suppliers surpass the limit, they will be subject to a fine of $5 for every 100 pounds produced past the set limit.
“Any access or over and above the base will incur a $5 charge. This represents what it would cost our cooperative to market it,” Agri-Mark Director William Harrigan said.
This comes after mass overproduction has forced 10% of Vermont’s dairy farms to close in 2018.
Agri-Mark says that says most of its farmer members have been working every day for the past five years. They believe that this supply management plan will change that.
“We want to have more days for maintenance. We want to have more days for things that need to be done in different plants. We haven’t been able to do that with the amount of milk that has been coming in constantly and constantly,” Agri-Mark Director of Cooperate Communications Douglas DiMento said.