HONESDALE, PA — Farmers and others gathered for the 37th annual Wayne County, PA/ Sullivan County, NY Dairy/Ag Day on February 16. One attendee was Wayne County Commissioners chair Brian Smith, who recently announced he is running for office again this year, and who is also a dairy farmer.

In 2010, Smith sold his cows but kept all the equipment, and after a couple of years re-entered the dairy business in partnership with his daughter and son-in-law. Smith’s barn burned down in May 2014, but with the help of members of the community, a new barn was built and the dairy operation is once again operating out of Smith’s barn.

Smith said the price of milk the farmers were getting paid was pretty strong until recently, when it dropped more than $6 per hundredweight. This is due in part to Russia blocking U.S. dairy imports in retaliation for sanctions sparked by the conflict in Ukraine, and China has also cut back on imports.

Milk producers have long complained about wild swings in the price set for the cost of unprocessed milk. In the 2014 Farm Bill, lawmakers in Washington, DC created a new insurance program for milk producers.

Smith said, “I’ve never been in favor of that particular plan. They take money out of your check, and you can decide what kind of margin you want to insure.” Under the plan, if a producer loses money on the sale of his or her milk, the insurance makes up for some of the loss. Smith called the arrangement an “invalid business model.”

Another producer at the event was Amy Theobald, who, with her husband Chuck, bottles milk at their farm and sells it through three markets and directly from a self-serve farm stand called Creamworks Creamery at Riverside Farms near Waymart. They also sell 15 flavors of ice cream, butter and brown eggs.

Theobald said the retail price of the milk she sells, like the wholesale price, is dropping quickly. She said, “From December to January it dropped $.30 a gallon, and from January to February it dropped $.17 a gallon.”

The federal pricing system dates back to the 1930s. Thoebald said, “It’s still there, it doesn’t work.” She said that milk prices through 2014 were at historical highs, and farmers out west continued to expand their herds. “They still put cows on, they still flood the market. My feeling is, and I’ve felt this way my whole entire life, I would rather sell the bottom 10% of my cows, spend more time with my family, and still make a decent living.”