MADISON, Wis. (WTAQ) - Dairy farmers say they are being squeezed out of the business. They say the system that determines what they get paid for milk is badly broken.
The farmers came to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Friday for the U.S. Department of Justice hearing on antitrust issues in the dairy industry. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says he's hearing a consistent message now -- dairy producers, large and small, are hurting.
The number of dairy farms in the United States has dropped from 111,000 ten years ago to 65,000 today. Though some of that is caused by consolidation, much of the atrophy involves small farmers who found they could no longer make a profit.
