Virginia milk: Drink it while you can?

By Kathy Dixon

If you enjoy milk from Virginia dairies, drink it while you can.

Economic woes and proposed changes to farm regulations in the Chesapeake Bay Program could force as many as half of Virginia's dairy farms to shut down, said Tony Banks, a commodity marketing specialist for Virginia Farm Bureau Federation.

"Consumers and legislators don't realize how big of an impact the proposed bay legislation could have on dairies in Virginia and in nearby states," Banks said. "This will affect a large portion of the Eastern Seaboard dairies as well as consumers in Virginia."

All of the dairy farmers in mid-Atlantic states in the bay watershed—Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New York—stand to be affected by conservation mandates under proposed Chesapeake Bay legislation, Banks said. So even if only half of Virginia's dairies shut down, more milk would be trucked in from Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin, and a significant portion could come from as far away as Texas and New Mexico ...