Under pressure, Amish farmers begin to exit dairy business

Has a slow exodus of Plain Sect farmers from the dairy business in Lancaster County already begun? The farmers do not blame consumers’ declining milk consumption for their predicament.Rather, frustrated local Plain Sect farmers here and around the state have banded together to protest — and in at least one case, sue — over the way milk is controlled, priced and sold after leaving their milking barns.They blame what they see as lack of representation and empire-building by large, officially nonprofit milk cooperatives that now are assuming control of dairies and milk processors, and have broad powers.Among the powers cooperatives wield are the right to deduct the costs of marketing and milk transportation from dairy farmers’ checks without having to itemize those deductions to the farmer.The cooperatives also have voting rights on how milk pricing is set, while individual farmers don’t.