On 2/10/12 the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund published Appendix B of the Farm to Plate Strategic Plan: Revitalizing Vermont's Dairy Industry. Click here for the link and scroll down. (Click here for an earlier post about Farm to Plate.) The appendix does a nice job of pulling together in one place a lot of information about Vermont's dairy industry.
One of the interesting things about the appendix is how it incorporates quotes from the 1976 report of the Governor's Commission on Food. So much of it still applies! Some of the issues affecting Vermont's dairy industry today go back even further, as evidenced by the booklet "This Milk Problem" published by UVM Extension in 1937.
Appendix B makes the following comment about financing today's dairy industry: “sufficient financing [for large dairy farms] is not available from one source.” We would not agree, as we provide all of the financing needs for many of Vermont’s largest dairy farms. I did a quick count (might have missed a few) and came up with loan commitments in excess of $100 million to 20 large dairy farms. That's an average of $5 million per farm. A few of those farms are in neighboring counties in New Hampshire and New York, but most are in Vermont.
There is no farm that we are unable to finance simply because it is too large.
UPDATE 4/19/12: Appendix B has been updated to include a discussion of Yankee Farm Credit's role in financing the dairy industry in Vermont. We appreciate the willingness of the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund to consider our comments.
