Dairy farmers dumping milk as demand drops

Some Ontario dairy farmers have been told to dump their excess milk as COVID-19 closures have caused the demand for dairy products to drop drastically.

With schools, hotels and coffeeshops now closed, the commercial sales of cream and milk that set the pace for dairy farm production have ground to a halt.

"It's not a good feeling. [This is] something that I've worked hard for — and all my hard work is going down the drain," said Tillsonburg, Ont., dairy farmer Remko Steen.

Last week, Steen was forced to dump about 12,000 litres of perfectly good milk down the drain.

Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO), the body that sets milk production quotas in the province, began ordering farmers to get rid of their surplus milk last week.

In an email to CBC, CEO Cheryl Smith said only once before in the agency's 55-year history have farmers been asked to throw out what they produce.

'It's hard to plan for anything'

It's not just the business and restaurant closures causing the supply problem, but also a bottleneck at the grocery store.

The problems started about two weeks ago, when shoppers swarmed Ontario's grocery stores, fearing essentials would run out.

Soon, coolers were empty of virtually all milk products, so some grocers responded by clamping down on panic buying and restricting buyers to one or two bags of milk at a time.

"We're hoping, you know, that we can get the get the grocery stores to stop limiting the milk so that we can move this milk and get it [on] the shelves instead of dumping it," Steen said.

For fellow dairy farmer Melinda Foster-Marshall, the last week has been a quota roller-coaster.

On Monday, DFO was offering incentives to farms that could ramp up milk output to to meet the demand caused by the panic buying.

But by Friday, the board warned her the blue tanker truck may not come to pick up her milk at all.

"You're sitting here waiting, and you don't really know what direction you're going to go. It's hard to plan for anything," said Foster-Marshall, who runs an operation in rural Ottawa, near the community of Stittsville.

Farmers will share losses

In a co-op system, all farmers whose product is marketed by the board will share the losses that come with the collapse in demand.

Farmers can manipulate a cow's diet to reduce the amount of milk it produces, but those who try to limit output by restricting the amount the animal eats may end up endangering its health.

With Ontario dairy farmers set to see lean times, the DFO is calling on Canadians to make sure they're choosing made-in -Canada products when they shop.