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East Tennessee dairy farmers milk every option to stay in business after Dean Foods ends contract

Fewer than 20 days remain until Dean Foods terminates its contract with dairy farmer Caleb Watson and his 221 milk cows. The countdown, if nothing else, has become easier to compute; the days can be tallied on fingers and toes now. Watson and 10 other East Tennessee farmers were given a 90-day, out-of-the-blue notice. Time is up May 31.The company cited an overabundance of milk in the market as reason for the cuts. Dean Foods subsidiary companies include Purity, Mayfield Dairy, Land O’Lakes, Dairy Pure, TruMoo and many other regional and national brands. Dean Foods isn’t the only operation dropping farmers, Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation president and former dairy farmer from Washington County, Jeff Aiken, said.State projections show a likely 20 percent drop in dairy farms across the state by the end of the year, he said. That figure, more than anything else, highlights the crisis, he said. One such opportunity for a number of farmers in East Tennessee has come from the newly-formed Appalachian Dairy Farmers Cooperative. The co-op is run by a board of directors but has entered into an agreement with Piedmont Milk Sales LLC out of Blountville, Tennessee to produce the milk.The co-op bought the farmers something they didn’t have -- time.The setup allows the 120 members, many of whom were Piedmont farmers to begin with, to continue to farm and get paid, even though it’s below the federal minimum. Piedmont continues to produce the milk and the farmers continue to have a place to send it. Even at a reduced rate, it’s better than going out of business. Costs are spread around the members.The group took on five former Dean Foods producers, four from Tennessee and one from North Carolina. The five were all previous Piedmont producers or were on Piedmont’s waiting list.

 

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