Study: Dairy a top Maine industry

AUGUSTA – A new industry-sponsored study of the impact of Maine’s dairy farms on the state’s economy has confirmed what those within the industry felt all along: With $570 million in business sales, the milk market in Maine is a substantial economic force.

“Five hundred seventy million dollars is nothing to sneeze at,” Julie Marie Bickford, executive director of the Maine Dairy Industry Association, said Wednesday. “And you also need to look at the $25 million annually that dairy farms and related businesses pay in tax revenue. Dairy in Maine is an economic engine.”

The report, published just last week, states that the dairy industry is a complex network of business interconnections – surpassed only by potatoes in its agricultural impact on Maine.

At the heart of the network are Maine’s 380 dairy farms but the elements reach out to encompass trucking and transport, seed and fertilizer suppliers, veterinary and other herd costs, banking, insurance and finance, fuel oil and utilities, property taxes and equipment maintenance and repair.

“This is the first study that actually quantifies the impact of Maine’s dairy industry,” Bickford said. “The results actually confirmed what we felt in our gut all along.”

Maine’s dairy industry produces about 650 million pounds of milk annually and provides jobs and income for more than 1,300 farmers, farm employees and their families.

The study emphasized, however, that the sale of milk by dairy farmers is just a portion of the total dairy industry. “Maine’s dairy industry includes not just farmers, but also fluid milk manufacturers, ice cream, cheese and butter manufacturers, and the retailers who transport and deliver the final product,” the report assessed. These additional businesses add another $225 million in sales and nearly 900 jobs.

“Finally, but certainly not least, Maine’s dairy farms, by their very existence, make an essential and unpaid contribution to the character of life in Maine. The fields that provide forage for cattle also provide open vistas for Maine’s commuters and tourists, countless opportunities for hiking, hunting, fishing, snowmobiling, cross-country skiing and other outdoor recreation activities,” the study concluded.

The study information also included the impact of Maine’s 90 goat and sheep farms, which collectively produce a half-million dollars’ worth of milk and cheese annually.

Bickford said the study will be made available to representatives within the dairy industry and elected leaders so that the information can be taken into consideration when looking at state funding and policy.

“When we talk about saving farms, we are taking about land,” said Bickford. But the impact of the farms goes way beyond their acreage to scores of related businesses, she said.

The study, released last week, was funded primarily by the Maine Dairy Industry Association, and piggybacked on statistics on milk cost of production used by the Governor’s Task Force on the Sustainability of the Dairy Industry in Maine. The task force suggested that the economic importance of the dairy industry “be quantified and documented.”

Research and analysis for the study was conducted by Planning Decisions Inc. of South Portland.