Cheese makers in
Wisconsin are cutting contracts with farmers and blaming Canada.
Greenwood-based Grassland
Dairy Products, recently said it was dropping several farms because it lost
millions of dollars when Canada changed its milk pricing policies to recapture
markets taken by diafiltered milk imports.
That means dozens of
dairy farms in the U.S. will no longer have a milk processor as of May 1.
Farmers who have been
selling to Grassland are pleading for help, but most processing plants are
already running at full capacity and aren't accepting more farms.
Federal and state
lawmakers have been trying to find short-term solutions, as well as
investigating trade pacts with Canada.
Mullins Cheese is an
exception, taking on eight farmers who lost their contracts and saying they
found them to be excellent herd managers.
