Like many businesses, COVID-19 hit local dairy farms hard.

Members of the Downstate Milk Producers Co-Op learned on March 31 that the processing plant that had purchased their milk for the past four years would not buy it until the market rebounded.

Farmers in the co-op include Garrett Stap, John DeVries and Sidney Vellenga of Pine Bush; Martin Nop and Luke Zylstra of Montgomery; Melissa Menendez and Carl Balbach of Walden; Phil Johnson of Goshen; Al Buckbee of Warwick; Don Thorn of Thompson Ridge and Troy Vellenga of Middletown.

With no distributor for their milk, about three weeks ago members of the co-op were forced to dump their milk for a week.

Garrett Stap, co-owner of Stap Dairy Farm in Pine Bush believes that the sudden drop in demand was due to stockpiling when COVID-19 first broke out as well as the closure of schools.

“Everything has never been closed at the same time for this long,” he said. “Schools close every summer but the ice cream stands open up or people start going out to eat. Now, schools are closed and yes, they’re still distributing meals but it’s not the volume that they were doing.”

Stap added that some restaurants have been forced to close, which has also negatively affected dairy farmers.

“On top of that [school closures] pizza places, some of them are shutting down because they can’t pay staff or somebody gets sick,” he said. “There’s a half pound of mozzarella cheese on every pizza.”

Since the mass dumping of milk three weeks ago, Stap along with Melissa Menendez, co-owner of Sprucegate Holsteins Dairy Farm in Walden have continued to sell milk at self-service stations on their farms. The processing plant has begun purchasing milk from the farms in the co-op again.
“Stap Dairy Inc., which would be the private sales, that business is better because we believe that people don’t want to go to the grocery store and it’s not crowded at our farm and everything’s very simple,” Stap said. “One person at a time comes and gets their milk and they can put a face to where it came from, they can see the animals. It gets them out of the house.”

However, the pandemic has dealt a critical blow to Stap and other dairy farms, as milk prices have gone down.

“If there’s any sort of federal aid that comes out of this that helps the farm break-even then I guess we’ll be thankful for that,” Stap said.

He has heard that federal assistance is coming but has yet to receive any. The funds would most likely go to the co-op before being distributed to each dairy farm.

As of Friday, April 24, dairy farmers are eligible for loans through the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program and COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan program.

The application period began on Monday, April 27 at 10:30 a.m. Dairy farmers should review relevant materials by visiting www.nmpf.org/coronavirus to determine their eligibility and better understand the process. Funds will be distributed by the Small Business Administration on a first-come first-serve basis.