State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

Vermont dairy is in crisis: 4 years of bad prices take a toll even on industry leaders

Burlington Free Press: Longtime dairy farmer Clark Hinsdale murmurs these words to himself as he surveys the vacant main barn at Nordic Farms from a catwalk high above hay-strewn floor. Sparrows flit among the steel girders of the expansive structure, the only other sound breaking the silence where once hundreds of dairy cows milled about, mooing and snorting.

Thousands of schoolchildren, college students and dairy farmers traversed this catwalk since the barn was built in 2004 by Hinsdale and his father as a showcase of modern dairy farming. Robotic milkers were part of the draw. Busloads of farmers came from as far as Kentucky to witness the wonders of Nordic Farms, Hinsdale said.

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