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Article: Dairy farmers: Current milk-pricing system is bull...
- Article from:
- Northeast Pennsylvania Business Journal
- Article date:
- March 1, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright Northeast Pennsylvania Business Journal Mar 01, 1997. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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There are 90 dairy farms in Wyoming County, where agriculture is the largest business and dairy farming the largest portion of chat business.
For decades, dairy farmers in Wyoming County have struggled with rising operating costs. Milk is price-regulated by the federal government. It is not priced based on the actual cost of its production. Farmers are paid for the milk they produce based on the price of cheese products manufactured in the upper midwestern United States.
To the dairy farmer in Northeast Pennsylvania as well as in the rest of the United States, this has meant a fixed price for fluid milk of between $11 and $12.50 per hundredweight over the past 15 years.
In 1981, the fluid ...