The Milk Pricing Problem

It's hard to believe there is a milk pricing problem when you see the cost of milk in your supermarket! But as you can see by the chart, most of the costs in a gallon of milk don't go to the farmer.

On average a Connecticut dairy farmer receives $1.72 per gallon of raw milk produced by one of their cows. This milk is then brought to a processor where it is pasteurized and bottled. Once completed it is shipped to your local store where you can purchase the milk.

The $1.72 per gallon milk is based off of a federal milk pricing structure that is drawn up on a national basis, without any recognization thta there are regional cost differences in production. For example feed and land costs are significantly more expensive here than say, Wisconsin. Some large scale farms in the western part of the country are able to lower their production costs by milking huge numbers of cows but that type of agriculture simply doesn't work here in Connecticut.

Connecticut's Congressional team is working in Washington to try and get the federal milk pricing formula changed to help reflect regional price differences and Connecticut last year enacted a two year emergency dairy aid program to help farmers ride out the historically low wholesale milk prices. We encourage you to contact your legislators and urge them to keep working to help find a permanent, long-term solution to support a viable dairy industry in Connecticut!