Houlton Farms Dairy to Stop Milk Production

Sep 09, 2024

By Kaitlyn Budion

Houlton Farms Dairy, the only dairy producer north of Portland, will halt milk production by the end of the month.

Plant manager Eric Lincoln said the decision was driven by a decline in sales of milk, and the closure of the dairy farm that supplies raw milk to the company.

"It's a tough decision, very tough," he said. "Financially, it's the only thing we can do. We're losing money. We own everything we have, and we're not going to go borrow money to try to keep going, that we know we can never pay back."

Houlton Farms Dairy supplies milk to around 100 stores, Lincoln said. The company will continue to make other products, including ice cream, butter and chocolate milk.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.