Lorain County dairy farms dump milk after processor backlogs

Conrad Farm was there before the road was. Despite its longevity, the family-owned dairy farm, like many in the county, is weathering the pandemic as best it can. But part of that weathering, for the first time brothers Rick and David Conrad can remember, they have had to dump milk down the drain. Dairy farms across the country have had to dump milk after processing plants were unable to handle the volume coming in as their supplies dried up. Rick Conrad said until the pandemic, he didn't realize about 40 percent of the milk processed by Borden in Cleveland is used in restaurants. "Without a market to move that product out they're getting real backlogged," Dave Conrad said. "And so the fluid milk coming in, they're just not able to move it fast enough and they're trying to redirect different plants and what they process and where it's going and trying to get the stores ... to stop limiting the amount of milk that they're taking. The farm has about 250 milk cows, caring for 500 total, including calves and other cows not producing milk. The milk they are getting processed is also going for a lower price. Ohio Farm Bureau director of media relations Ty Higgins said his organization has kept an eye on the situation since mid-January when the first COVID-19 cases were discovered in China. Since then, milk and livestock prices have plummeted. "We hear the word unprecedented over and over and over again with this, but there's no better word to describe it. I mean, this is something that not only have we never seen before, this is something that you could never plan for. And it's unfortunate, you know, even you and I outside of agriculture couldn't plan for this." He added, "there are so many uncertainties with agriculture as it is. We have to worry about the weather constantly, trade, the markets. But this type of uncertainty that the levels have never been seen before has, has just added a new wrinkle that none of us were ready for. And unfortunately, agriculture is taking a hit because of it." In Penfield Township, Jim Sheffield of Jaloda Farm is in a similar situation. A mix of his name, James, his wife's name, Lora, and their children's names that all start with "da," the farm has been in the family since 1916. Notwithstanding snow storms preventing milk pickup, he's never had to dump the product before. Watching milk go down the drain, he dumped about $3,000 worth from two days of milking. His farm has about 130 milking cows, 240 total including calves. "Right when the virus first hit people went to the stores and actually took more milk than they needed and they ran them out of milk and then after that they decided to put a limit on it but then that ended up hurting us in the long run because at some point. ... The processors were geared up to put milk in the stores but the stores weren't taking it because they had the limit on it and that ended up kind of hurting us." Lorain County used to be a big dairy area, he said — estimating about 100 farms in Penfield Township during its heyday that have dwindled to two. Processing and cheese plants dotted the county, including in Oberlin and Wellington, before many started using larger processors to the north. Many of the dairy farms in Northeast Ohio ship milk to Dairymens in Cleveland, owned by Borden Farms. In a statement, the dairy processor agreed with Higgins that the current situation is something the industry has never seen before. "We have been going to great lengths to maintain our relationship with local farmers, including shipping their milk to other plants in Alabama, Mississippi and Kentucky," wrote Adrienne Chance, Senior Director of Corporate Communications, in an email. "These activities have resulted in significant extra costs to Borden. We are working with the Federal Order market administrators, who are in turn working with the USDA, to see how best to address this issue and what aid can be provided to the farmers who still had to dump milk." Higgins said some processing plants have had to shut down, not just in the dairy industry, but for meat as well. "It's not going to affect our food supply here in the short term, but it is having a major impact on farmers because when your product's ready to sell, whether that be a beef cow or a hog, when it's ready to go, it's ready to go. And they're already losing money with every head. And so if they actually continue feeding beef cattle in the pasture or with grain, they lose money every time they feed that, that head of cattle. Same thing goes with hogs. The more you keep them, the more it's going to cost you to, to maintain them." From wholesale to doorsteps Others, like Lettuce Heads in Wellington are changing their current community-supported agriculture, or CSA, to fit social-distancing needs, and helping other Ohio farms in the process. Cousins Kurk and Nick Ziegler have run the CSA for about five years. The orders have been expanding weekly, Kurk Ziegler said. Since the stay-at-home order, the farm has been moving to offer weekly deliveries of their grocery boxes — from a vegetable-only option, the bulk from Lettuce Heads, to an omnivore one that includes milk, eggs and rotating cuts of meat, Nick Ziegler explained. "Our partnerships, really we're buying it from them at a wholesale price and retailing it at their recommended price," Kurk Ziegler said. "That works well — except for when we run out of things and then we have to drive all over creation to get it — but it's been very easy to call and say 'This is what we'd like to do, do you want to be on our order form?' and then we'll do it on a trial basis and if it works we expand that." He added, "As far as the dairy farms, they came and dropped off on Wednesday and we loaded like 20 (empty) crates into their truck and they were like 'Holy cow, you sold all this?' They were pretty shocked how fast it's selling. They're a small dairy farm that is in the right business right now, because if you know anything about large dairy farms it's not a very fun time to be a dairy farmer." Conrad Farm's Rick Conrad said there is an initiative to get excess milk in the hands of the countries' neediest families, through partnerships with local food banks. Dave Conrad said often food banks give out nonperishable items, but donations can be earmarked. But as dairy and much of agriculture continues to take a hit, farms like Jaloda and Conrad are worried how long they can last. "The scary part is, even though they've been around for five or six generations one year like this can put them out of business," Higgins said. While optimistic, Dave Conrad agrees. "It's not just our (farm), it's the whole dairy industry," Dave Conrad said. "If they don't come up with some way to correct the problem, it's not just Conrad's, it's the whole dairy industry all across the state of Ohio, all across the county just can't produce a product for where the prices are today." Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.