ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 11, 1996 TAG: 9601110073
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: S.D. HARRINGTON STAFF WRITER
WHEN SNOW prevented trucks that normally pick up the milk from reaching dairy farms in Western Virginia, farmers saw their hard work go down the drain.
Floyd County dairy farmer Greg Phillips hadn't had a truck pick up milk at his farm since last Friday.
Because of a state regulation that prohibits farmers from storing milk for more than 48 hours, he had to dump more than 500 gallons.
For Phillips, that was the equivalent of five milkings for 52 head of cattle.
"I dumped about two days' worth," Phillips said.
Franklin County dairy farmer Joe Don Dickenson had to dump more than 2,000 gallons before trucks finally made it to his farm Tuesday.
Consumers won't see any immediate effect. Milk prices are negotiated months in advance, so the farmers are having to take the loss themselves.
And they can't stop milking the cows.
"You have to milk them on a regular schedule," said Audrey Poage, whose husband, Bill Poage, had to dump more than 200 gallons of milk this week on the family's Roanoke County farm.
"If you don't milk them, it'll cut down on production."
"We have an economic livelihood at stake here for dairy farmers," said G.H. Cain, division manager of the nationwide dairy marketing cooperative Dairymen Inc. The Roanoke-based division, which represents states from Pennsylvania to South Carolina, has about 400 members in Virginia.
"I put keeping the roads clear for farmers right up there with keeping the roads clear for hospitals," Cain said.
It's too early to give an accurate estimate of how much milk Virginia dairy farmers lost, Cain said. However, he estimated that "tens of thousands of gallons" have been lost.
Cain also said he can't accurately estimate the impact this has had on the milk supply in Virginia, although Monday night he noticed at a local grocery store that the only milk on the shelves was a few cartons of buttermilk.
"Unless we can get it from the farms to the plant, the plants don't have anything to get to the stores," Cain said.
The snow also has thrown the cooperative's schedules off line. Even when trucks can reach farms, they are getting there late.
Cain expects the Virginia milk industry to be able to catch up by today, although another storm Friday would not help at all.
"What we're still running into are some of the secondary roads out in counties that continue to drift closed," Cain said.
Beef cattle farmers have had different sorts of problems.
Some farmers have cattle spread over several fields and have to plow through acres of snow-covered pasture to get to them.
And in cold weather, with nothing on the ground for the cattle to eat, farmers are having to feed them a lot more than usual, said Buchanan beef farmer Linwood Bush.
To complicate matters further, last summer's drought has left some farmers with a limited supply of hay, Bush said.
"It affects you all around in extreme weather," he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN/Staff. Roanoke County dairy farmer Davidby CNBPoage drives his herd across Back Creek toward the barn for their
afternoon milking. The Poages had
to dump more than 200 gallons of milk this week. color.