Dairy Farmers Resort To Dumping Thousands Of Gallons Of Milk, With Processing Plants Unable To Keep Up

Jun 19, 2023

BY JOHN LAURITSEN

You may have seen videos of Minnesota farmers dumping thousands of gallons of milk on their farms, because of oversupply and processing plants being unable to keep up. And finding a new home for milk isn't easy.

"Ultimately, the nutrition in dairy is very much needed in this country and other parts of the world, too," said Justin Malone.

Malone is a third-generation dairy farmer and one of the owners of Hastings Creamery. Forty-five dairy farms from Minnesota and Wisconsin are part of this operation. But lately, many farmers have struggled to find a home for their product.

"It's the same situation for a lot of folks is that in the dairy industry, we just don't have enough processing to handle the amount of milk that the dairy industry is producing right now," said Malone.

It's led to farmers dumping milk, like at Thompson Dairy near Lewiston. Owners there tell WCCO that older processing plants haven't been able to keep up with what farmers are producing.

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