It appears most Wisconsin dairy farmers caught up in the trade dispute with Canada have found new buyers for their milk. This good news allows them to stay in business and literally comes days before they may have had to shut their doors for good. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel says 58 farms had been in danger of closing. The farm sizes ranged from 80 cows to as high as 3,000. Grassland Dairy Products of Greenwood, Wisconsin, had said this Monday, May 1, was the date it would stop buying milk from those producers. Greenwood says a trade dispute with Canada had cost the company millions of dollars. Canada recently changed its milk-buying arrangements to favor Canadian producers at the expense of U.S. dairy farmers. As of Thursday (April 27), dairy farmers close to the situation tell the Journal-Sentinel that it appears all the farmers who lost their contracts with Grassland now will have buyers by Monday, even though some may be on short-term contracts. Some of the new buyers come from Wisconsin-based companies like Rolling Hills Dairy Cooperative and Mullins Cheese, as well as Dairy Farmers of America.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting news service.
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