Dairy Industry

Consumers stand to pay 3 cents to 4 cents a gallon more for milk at the supermarket if negotiators for Maryland's dairy farmers and five milk processors agree on a higher price for milk at the farm level.Myron Wilhide, interim president of the Maryland Dairy Association, disclosed the negotiations yesterday at a meeting of the Maryland Agricultural Commission near Queenstown. The commission is an advisory group to the state Department of Agriculture.Wilhide said farmers were negotiating for an increase of 40 cents per hundredweight, equal to about 3.5 cents a gallon, and early indications are that milk processors are agreeable.

The Maryland dairy industry may weather the worst drought in 30 years, but farmers in Carroll County and elsewhere cannot survive falling prices for milk, their main source of income, according to dairy officials.Many producers report monthly losses of as much as $6,000 on milk shipped to processors, who attribute the drop to market fluctuations. With beef prices also dropping, farmers cannot rely on cattle sales to offset losses."A lot of dairy farmers would sell out, except the value of their cattle is so low," said Myron L. Wilhide, president of the Maryland Dairy Industry Association.

Milk prices, which have been on the rise in recent months, are about to turn down.While this may be good news for consumers, it doesn't bode well for Maryland's dwindling number of dairy farmers.Giant Food Inc., the Baltimore area's largest supermarket chain, plans to cut retail prices by six to eight cents a gallon this month, according to David A. Larson, vice president of processing operations for the state's largest chain of supermarkets.Giant's decision to reduce prices will very likely force other retailers to do the same, especially in the Baltimore area, where milk prices are the highest in the state.

A bill in the General Assembly designed to help stabilize Maryland's declining dairy industry by allowing the state to set a minimum price on milk has become the center of one of the most heated controversies in the industry since Mrs. O'Leary's cow was accused of kicking over the lantern that ignited the Great Chicago Fire.Maryland's dairy industry, the third largest segment of agriculture with farm sales of $180 million a year, is being clobbered, proponents of the bill say, because the state is caught between two states -- Pennsylvania and Virginia -- that have price-support programs which allow them to undercut the market in Maryland.

YOUR FEB. 4 editorial against setting minimum milk prices in Maryland ("Milk commission does a body no good") is incomplete. As a result, your conclusion is in error. Maryland milk producers want a level playing field. As long as Pennsylvania and Virginia establish minimum milk prices, Maryland will continue to be a dumping ground with implications for her dairy producers, consumers, and the environment.Maryland dairy producers have a proud history of providing a reliable and safe product while protecting the environment.

DETOUR -- Myron L. Wilhide remembers when there were 11 dairy farms along the 2 1/2 -mile stretch of country road that connects this tiny, rural community with Keysville.Today, he and his brother, Richard, operate one of only three that still exist. The other dairy farms, along with a milk-cooling plant a quarter of a mile from Wilhide's farm, have gone out of business since the early 1960s.The loss of dairy farms is not limited to rural sections of Carroll County. It's a statewide problem.

The recommendations of a state task force aimed at halting the sharp decline of Maryland's dairy industry received a cautious reception yesterday by House and Senate committees of the General Assembly.Lawmakers were most leery of a recommendation for a price support system that could reverse the trend of farms going out of business, but would have consumers paying higher prices for milk and other dairy products.They also expressed concern over a suggestion that would allow the industry to extend the "sell by" date on milk containers.

FREDERICK -- For the second time in three years, a state task force looking into the economic woes of Maryland's dairy industry is recommending a price-support plan that could reverse the trend of farms going out of business, but would likely result in consumers paying more for dairy products at the supermarket."

Detour dairy farmer Myron L. Wilhide says some of his neighbors and friends are smarter than he.They have given up the long hours in the barn and field, the frustrations with the weather and fluctuating milk prices that he has battled for 30 years, he adds wryly.But Mr. Wilhide, 52, intends to stay in the business and now is part of a statewide effort to keep the dairy industry alive."People want the most abundant, cheapest and safest food; we have to keep working on it," he said.Mr. Wilhide is one of 26 members of a task force appointed by state agriculture officials last spring to study the industry and recommend ways to help it survive.