Dairy farmer Jerry Grabarek doesn’t think any milk produced at his Preston Farms has been dumped by his wholesaler, but he knows that could happen at any time.

“They are dumping milk in Connecticut,” Grabarek said. “They fill the trailers, and then there’s no place for it to go, so they dump it. Mine hasn’t been dumped yet.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a disturbing paradox in the food supply. People suddenly out of work are lining up at food banks. Yet with restaurants and schools closed and events canceled, excess milk is being dumped and dairy farmers are being ordered by their wholesale cooperatives to cut production by 5 to 15% in May and June. The wholesale price has dropped from nearly $20 per 100-weight — about 11 to 12 gallons or almost 9 pounds — in late 2019 to a projected $12 or less in May.

Grabarek's 50 cows at his Route 2 farm produce 100,000 pounds per month for the Dairy Farms of America cooperative, which goes to the Guida Dairy facility in New Britain. He will cut to 85,000 pounds, mostly by feeding less grain and putting cows to pasture, where they produce less milk.

“The situation is as bad as it’s ever been,” Grabarek said. He called the prices in November and December “the first good months in five years.”

The Cushman Farm in Franklin milks 1,550 cows. The farm sells to the two largest cooperatives, Dairy Farms of America and Agri-Mark, which has Cabot and other brands. Cushman Farm also is one of six farms in the Farmer’s Cow cooperative, which sends milk in partnership to Guida Dairy to process milk, cheese and ice cream under the Farmer’s Cow brand.

Operations Manager and co-owner Jim Smith said Cushman Farm lost about $125,000 in April and expects the loss to double to $250,000 in May and June.

“The problem is a processing problem,” Smith said. “There’s too much milk, with restaurants and schools not being open. School lunches are still being provided somewhat, but there’s definitely a loss there. Milk is backed up. There’s less export. More milk is being sold retail than before, and cheese than before. However, there’s basically 10% too much milk.”

Retail and restaurant/industrial packaging are different, and it’s not easy to shift products. Restaurants buy cheese and butter in big blocks, not sticks and one-pound retail packages. Farmers said they are annoyed that grocery stores at first limited milk sales, fearing shoppers would strip the shelves, and that prices haven't dropped.

Smith said Cushman farm produces 4 million pounds per month or 465,000 gallons of milk to be made into fluid milk, butter, powdered milk and cheese.

To cut production, Cushman farm will cull some milking cows, delay breeding so some “dry out,” and sell some for beef. But Smith said the beef market is iffy, with production plants shutting down due to COVID infections in workers. Dairy cows would be behind beef cattle for processing, Smith said.

One of Grabarek’s cows in Preston gave birth last week. Grabarek sells the calves, but the price has plummetted to about $10 to $25 per calf. “You can sell a rooster for more than you can sell a calf these days,” he said.

Farm store thrives

The Mattern Farm in Preston, which operates Sweet Grass Creamery, is in a slightly different situation. Partner owners Ed Mattern and Carol Wojtkun said the small farm has 70 Jersey cows and milks 23 cows. The farm uses 15% of its milk on site, creating “cream-line” pasteurized not homogenized milk, yogurt and spread cheese. The farm store sells products from local farms.

The store is open only for online sales and table pick-ups at www.sweetgrass-creamery.com, and sales are robust, helped by state promotion of farm stores. Wojtkun said yogurt sales have tripled since January.

“Since the pandemic started, a lot more people have found out about us,” Wojtkun said. “Connecticut has been really good at letting people know where to shop local to reach the farm stores.”

But Mattern said 85% of the 1,200 pounds of milk produced per day is sold to Dairy Farmers of America and is subject to the cutbacks. Sweet Grass Creamery can use some excess milk for its own products, but since Mattern and Wojtkun run the operation themselves, they can’t use all the excess.

“We’re in the same boat as everybody else with our wholesale milk,” Mattern said. “They want everybody to cut back, which is probably a good thing. We’re using more milk now, in light of everything that’s going on.”

Mattern and Wojtkun hope consumers continue to support small dairy farms. He said creating “value-added” local products could be what saves small farms, provided customers continue to support farm markets and farm stands.

“Right now, they’re interested,” Mattern said of the public. “We only hope that, for all the other farm stands, the public continues to support them. The supermarkets are going to do whatever they can to get you back. We’re trying to find the right path right now and trying not to make the wrong decisions.”

Farmers look for help

In early April, the Connecticut Milk Promotion Board donated $40,000 to Connecticut food banks to purchase local milk and dairy products for food banks in each county, state Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Rebecca Eddy said. Agri-Mark Cooperative and Cabot Creamery and Dairy Farmers of America have added to the state's donation, she said.

Eddy said state Agriculture Commissioner Bryan Hurlburt is working with food banks to move more agricultural products into food centers and build their infrastructure to ensure there are places for the food to go.

As part of the Coronavirus Farm Assistance Program, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced plans to purchase and distribute up to $3 billion of agricultural products to people in need. USDA will partner with regional and local distributors, whose workforces have been significantly impacted by the closure of restaurants, hotels, and food service outlets, to bring fresh produce, dairy, and meat to nonprofit organizations.

The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service’s Commodity Procurement Program will purchase an estimated $100 million per month in fresh fruits and vegetables, $100 million per month in dairy products, and $100 million per month in meat products for food banks, community and faith-based organizations, and other non-profits serving Americans in need, the USDA announced on its website.

U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, co-chairman of the bipartisan Congressional Dairy Caucus, pushed federal officials last week to act quickly to process farmers’ applications for new COVID-19 relief funding in the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. He urged the Small Business Administration to establish a dedicated portal for farmers’ PPP applications and to process farmers' applications first.

On Monday, the SBA announced it will begin accepting new EIDL and grant applications on a limited basis specifically for American farmers and agriculture businesses. The SBA also announced it would resume processing EIDL applications that were submitted previously and will process applications on a first-come, first-served basis.

“Their announcement today will begin to remedy the situation,” Courtney said in a statement Monday. “Farmers finally have a portal through which to apply for and access the EIDL funding that Congress intended to provide them, and the SBA will be focusing on new EIDL applications to assist farmers, specifically.”

The SBA historically has not been available to farmers, Courtney said, causing confusion and delays during the first round of funding. The money ran out quickly. Smith at Cushman Farm, which has 30 employees, said he and others applied for PPP assistance, but did not receive funding and grew frustrated.

The second round of relief funds could run out fast as well, but Courtney urged farmers to apply and not to give up. Congress could authorize additional relief, and applications already in the pipeline would be processed first.

In a letter last week to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and SBA Administrator Jovidta Carranza, Courtney urged the agencies to act quickly to publish guidelines for farmers to apply for the funds.

“If this guidance is not issued soon and farmers are not provided with an expedited approval track,” Courtney wrote, “it is extremely likely that our farms in need will not be able to access the new appropriated funds to these programs, and massive closures of local farm businesses will undoubtedly be the result.”

In an op-ed published Thursday in the Manchester Journal Inquirer, Courtney said it is “sickening to watch” the prices for dairy products collapse and called it “a truly catastrophic threat to the viability of Connecticut’s family farms and to locally grown food, which are vital to Connecticut’s high quality of life.”

Courtney held a teleconference call with the Connecticut Farm Bureau in mid-April and has been in contact with state Agricultural Commissioner Hurlburt to try to get dairy and farm products into the hands of families who need food.

“We’re trying to get this excess food into the food banks and nutrition programs,” Courtney said. “I was talking with Connecticut Food Bank, and they’re struggling with logistics of demand and sudden supply. The best temporary solution is to get it to somebody in need.”

c.bessette@theday.com