Here’s a nice Associated Press article about dairy farmers facing dwindling numbers in highly populated areas are putting a fresh face on milk marketing.
It’s tough to be a dairy farmer right now. Business costs are soaring and wholesale milk prices are low.
It can be even tougher to raise cows on prime real estate in the mid-Hudson Valley, where many old dairy farms have been sliced up to make way for subdivisions with $400,000 homes.
“This is the high-rent district, no doubt about it,” said farmer Sam Simon, standing in his barn as his milking cows chomped on hay. “But you cannot deny the farmer who has worked for 50 years the fruit of his labor.”
Simon’s solution to the price pinch is Hudson Valley Fresh, a high-quality milk brand that usually travels less than 35 miles from cow to counter. Consumers willing to pay a bit more get to buy local, and participating farmers fetch a higher price for their milk. Farmers in populated pockets of the Northeast are creating similar local brands to boost income.
Read more from Forbes on-line.