Ohio dairy farmers leaving at higher-than-usual rate

The dramatic drop in milk prices is causing Ohio’s dairy farmers to leave the business at a higher than usual rate, according to The Ohio State University’s (OSU) College of Food, Agricultural & Environmental Sciences. While some farmers retire and give up their dairy licenses every year, there has been an uptick recently. In March 2018, there were 2,253 licensed dairy farms in Ohio – a drop of 59 farms in five months. “Farmers are deciding they can no longer dig any deeper into their equity to pay for what I call ‘the privilege of milking cows,’” said Dianne Shoemaker, Ohio State University Extension field specialist in dairy production economics.