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Dean Foods to terminate more than 100 dairy contracts

More than 100 dairy farmers in eight states need to find a new home for their milk.  Dean Foods issued a written statement saying they made the difficult decision to end milk procurement contracts with selected farmers on May 31st.

The farms are in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, New York, North Carolina and South Carolina.  Dean foods says the surplus of raw milk at a time when the public already is consuming less fluid milk is one factor in the decision.  They also say companies expanding their presence in the milk processing business have exacerbated the situation.

Dean Foods is also losing some of the private label packagings of milk for Walmart, which is about to open their own bottling plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  Brownfield reached out to Walmart to see if they would be contracting some of the displaced Dean Foods producers, but so far, they have not responded.

Nearly one year ago, more than 70 Wisconsin and Minnesota farmers had to find a new home for their milk when Grassland Dairy Products lost their Canadian market for ultrafiltered milk.  Most of those farmers have found a new processor.

  • No surprise here. As one can see from the stock price over the last year or so, Dean foods is a poorly managed company.
    Their profits should be through the roof given the extremely low price of the commodity the process.

    • People are not buying the Dean brand at $1.00 more per gallon, and the private label they run has to be priced so low, they can’t generate profit. Debt load is tremendous.

  • Dean/Mayfield lowered the cell count so low that the small dairy farms was unable to meet there standards..plus dropped the bottom out of the milk prices and your feed prices keep going up..no support or help from the company..wants all the small farmers out of business…the milk you buy is not from your local farmer..has sat in a tanker for several days from New Mexico

    • Not necessarily. Milk taken to Deans in Huntley and Rockford often comes from Wisconsin and Illinois farms, which is by far more “local” than from New Mexico.

  • Dean Foods screwed the dairy market and consumers everywhere with their best non bst stance even though it was FDA approved. Karma Deans goes broke,

  • If the dairy FARMERS would stop delivering now! They would send a message to DEANFOODS. Dont wait until may 31st. That’s why Suiza and DEANFOODS should have never been allowed to merge and become the New Deanfoods. It’s called a monopoly. 75% of the msrket. Its all sbout the stock holders.

  • horrible you are taking from the simply hard working farms and letting these large mompanies momoplize our country people who try to make a living in a honesty way have no way of making a living for there families

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