Apr. 2020 – Dairy Farmers to Dump up to 3.7 Million Gallons of Milk per Day Due to COVID-19 Pandemic

Due to school and restaurant closures during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, demand for milk has dropped sharply. Low demand, combined with processing bottlenecks and grocery store ordering caps, has forced milk farmers to dump milk before it is delivered to processors.

Slowing milk production now instead of dumping could result in dairy shortages after the COVID-19 pandemic is over.

Zoey Nelson, a sixth-generation dairy farmer, stated, “You can’t shut down cows. You can’t turn them off like a faucet. Just to see it [milk] going down the drain — it’s devastating.”

The Dairy Farmers of America estimate between 2.7 and 3.7 million gallons of excess milk could be dumped daily.