By DAVE SOLOMON
State House Bureau
CONCORD — Lawmakers are preparing an emergency farm bill that could direct between $3 million and $4 million toward rescuing the state’s faltering dairy industry.
If all goes according to plan the measure will be voted on when the Legislature convenes for Organization Day on Dec. 7, an indication of the urgency surrounding the crisis, which has already seen the state lose 19 of its 120 wholesale dairy farms in the past eight months.
“We obviously have an emergency situation, and we have a time crunch,” said Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro. “Normally legislation would not move even in an emergency situation until the first couple weeks of January. If all the stars are aligned in the right direction and everything falls into place, it could be done on Dec. 7.”
State Rep. Robert Haefner, R-Hudson, chair of the Environment and Agriculture committee, assured the dairy farmers and others who came to testify on the relief measure at a hearing in Concord on Monday that the governor, Senate president and Speaker of the House are all on board.
Preventing the collapse of the dairy industry in the state is something that should concern everyone, said Haefner, describing the economic impact of wholesale dairy farming and its role in preserving open space in New Hampshire.
“If we lose a significant portion of our dairy industry, we lose the infrastructure that supports it,” he said. “If we start losing tractor dealers, fertilizer dealers, it not only affects the dairy farm, but every vegetable and fruit farmer in the state that needs the infrastructure that’s here to support dairy. And that’s a big concern.”
The dairy industry generates more than $200 million in economic activity statewide and is critical to the preservation of open space and the rural economy in New Hampshire, according to Bob Wellington, a vice president and economist with the Agri-Mark Dairy Cooperative, which counts half the state’s dairy farmers among its members.
Those dairy farmers lost a collective $7 million in 2015 and are on track to lose $10 million in 2016, according to Wellington.
The problem started as wholesale milk prices began to decline in 2015, and was made worse by the prolonged drought of 2016, which left dairy farmers with little or no home-grown feed for the winter and no money to buy food for their livestock as the cold weather draws near.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture changed its system of price supports to an optional insurance program that proved to be of little value to New Hampshire farmers.
“Many of our New Hampshire member farms are multi-generational and have been farming the land since the beginning of this nation,” Wellington said. “They are in great need of immediate financial assistance to keep alive that tradition as well as the many economic benefits and local food security they provide.”
Pittsfield dairy farmer Tom Marston presented a petition with 785 signatures, urging lawmakers to “take bold and immediate action on behalf of the state of New Hampshire’s threatened dairy farmers, whom we recognize as a vital part of our economy.”
Bradley had hoped to leave Monday’s meeting of the Milk Producers Emergency Relief Fund with a number he could bring to Legislative leaders so that a public hearing could be scheduled in October or early November for a bill to be voted on by early December.
– See more at: http://www.unionleader.com/business/States-dairy-farmers-in-line-for-emergency-bailout-10032016#sthash.OETaUbA0.dpuf
