Dairy Farmers' Concerns

IMLER, BEDFORD COUNTY - The U. S. Secretary of Agriculture stopped in Bedford County. He opened the floor to questions. And most of them were about the dairy industry.

The Snider family has owned Singing Brook Dairy Farm since the 40’s. Bruce Snider says the milk prices are making it hard to run a dairy. Right now dairy farmers get about a $1.25 for a gallon of milk. And that often doesn't cover the cost of production. Snider says the average person that goes into a store to buy a gallon of milk doesn’t understand what it takes to run a dairy. He opens up tours of their dairy so people can learn.

U. S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack picked the Snider's farm to address all farmers’ concerns. He's had 30 open forums in thirty states in the last few months. And he says every single meeting someone asks about dairy farming. He says the milk prices go up and down and farmers can't recover their losses. And the dairy farmers across the nation need to get together to come up with one solution to stabilize the market.

But Snider says that's almost impossible because people want to do things the way their families have always done them. He hopes one that they'll find a solution they can agree on. But until then he's going to keep working the farm.