By Alfred Wanner Jr.It’s hard to overstate how important dairy cows are to Lancaster County’s economy. According to one authoritative estimate, dairyfarming here generates more than $400 million in revenue annually. Eighty-five percent of that stays in the community, changing hands 2½ times and generating $1.5 billion in total economic activity. Put another way, Lancaster’s economic fortunes rise and fall largely with those of its dairyfarmers.And right now dairyfarmers are worried that 2012 could be another 2009, when milk prices plummeted just as feed costs soared, wiping out profit margins virtually overnight. Many of us lost money on every gallon of milk we produced for a year. Others simply didn’t survive.
November 11, 2020 11:23 PM
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![“That’s one of the things that can actually put money in dairy farmers’ pockets,” he says. “[Congressman] Collin Peterson has said if a dairy farmer hasn’t signed up for the program, they’re out of their mind.”](https://assets.farmjournal.com/dims4/default/988118b/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4263x2848+12+0/resize/250x167!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffj-corp-pub.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fs3fs-public%2F52D6573E-5E43-4E29-B437E3AA4E41A14A.jpg)
