HAVRE, Mont. (NMB) – Late last week, Montana’s Board of Milk Control adopted an emergency rule to address the dumping of milk related to loss of demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Krista Lee Evans is a representative for the Montana Milk Producers Association, which advocated for this emergency rule. She says the rule change will spread out and minimize the financial impact of milk dumping by allowing dumped milk to be considered surplus milk.
“So what we did is, through the board of milk control, expanded the pool of farmers that absorb the cost of that dump, so that everybody is hurt a little, instead of one or two farms being hurt a lot.”
Evans says prior to Monday, Montana producers had dumped a total of 180,000 pounds of milk, all from Hutterite Colonies. Two of those loads were dumped before the emergency rule went into effect.
Evans says that even with 12,000 gallons of milk currently being donated to food banks across the state, the supply still far outweighs the demand.
“The challenge is matching the supply with the demand. And we’re facing some demand challenges, specifically brought about by school and restaurant closures. So the demand for milk shifted substantially, and our cows, we can’t turn the spigot off.”
Milk Control Bureau Chief Chad Lee says no Montana dairies have closed yet due to the pandemic, and encourages Montanans to buy milk.
“The Montana famers work very hard and same with the people that bottle and distribute the milk. They work very hard to bring this milk to you. So I encourage people to consume Montana milk and encourage the stores not to limit purchases of this milk to individuals. There’s plenty of supply.”
Lee says he estimates around 60,000 pounds of milk will be dumped in Montana daily over the next 1 to 3 months due to the pandemic.
