Bureau of Dairying 



David Sheldon, Chief 



The Bureau of Dairying had a very successful F.Y. 88. 

 All of the requests received for the inspection of 

 Dairy Farms and Milk Plants to ship fluid milk to our 

 market were completed in a timely maimer in accordance 

 with the requirements of Chapter 94 of the General 

 Laws. 



Dairy Farms In Massachusetts 



Throughout F.Y. 88 our total dairy farm numbers in 

 Massachusetts continued to decline. September 1, 1987 

 signaled the end of the dairy termination program and the 

 erosion of our dairy farms slowed somewhat; however, we 

 are still in a steady loss situation. 



On July 5, 1988 we recorded 482 commercial dairy 

 farms operating within the state. This number represents 

 a drop of 63 farms from our July 1987 figure of 545 farms. 

 Compared to our previous fiscal year's loss of 97 dairy 

 fcU'ms the loss is not as severe, but it is significant. 



A search into our records shows us that Mas- 

 sachusetts had 6,885 dairy farms in 1940 and that the 

 number of dairy farms increased to 7,331 by 1953. Since 

 1953 there has been a steady loss of dairy farms to our 

 present figure of 482 or 6.57% of the dairy farms we had 

 35 years ago. Using the same percentage loss we have 

 experienced we would have 32 dairy farms in Mas- 

 sachusetts in the year 2023. It is our belief that we will 

 experience a continued erosion of dairy farms for the 

 reasons which are common knowledge to all of us in the 

 agricultural field such as the best use of investment 

 capital, labor, rate of return, size of operation necessary 

 for an adequate return, off farm employment oppor- 

 timities and the exorbitant prices being offered for land 

 in Massachusetts. We continue to have great faith in the 

 agricultural preservation restriction program and the real 

 estate tax relief offered via Chapter 61A to be incentive 

 enough to slow our loss of farms, however, it is impossible 

 for many to show a reasonable profit even with these 

 incentives, if the price of milk is too low as it has been for 

 the past year. It is now essential that this state do all that 

 is possible to assist in enhancing the price of milk at the 

 farm. 



To put our previous discussion about the loss of 

 farms in Massachusetts in the proper hght it is impor- 

 tant to note that even though we have lost farms every 

 year since 1953 our total production in Massachusetts 

 had been on a slow rise up to 1983 due to more cows on 

 remaining farms and higher production per cow. The 

 Federal Milk Diversion program started in 1983 and it 

 was followed up by the Federal Dairy Termination Pro- 



gram in 1986 which resulted in a loss of approximately 

 20% of the milk being produced in Massachustts. The 

 remaining herds in the state have picked up some of this 

 loss by adding cows and by increasing production per 

 cow, but it is not enough to bring us back to our 1983 

 highpoint in milk production. 



Dairy Farm, Milk Plant And 

 Pasteurization Plant Inspections 



We inspect all Massachusetts producers at least twice 

 a year and all of our out of state producers at least once 

 a year. In addition to the 482 active dairy farms we 

 now have under inspection in Massachustts we had 

 6,070 dairy farms under inspection in our supplying 

 states as of January 1, 1988. 



On June 30, 1988 we had 8 milk plants under 

 inspection in Massachusetts and in out of state areas we 

 had 20 milk plants and 22 pasteurization plants under 

 inspection. 



Our statistics section at the end of this report gives the 

 actual number of inspections made in addition to many 

 other statistics. 



The Milk Shed 



We continue to have a slow but steady addition of 

 producers in the State of New York. The New England 

 milk shed is finite and when additional milk is needed 

 the Massachusetts cooperatives and dealers request 

 our inspection of producers in the State of New York. 



Mastitis Program 



The Mastitis program carried out in conjunction 

 with Paige Laboratory at the University of Mas- 

 sachusetts continues to be of great assistance to all 

 Massachusetts dairymen who participate. It is a volun- 

 tary program. We have approximately 325 herds en- 

 rolled in the program out of a total of 482 herds or 

 67% participation. The elimination of Streptococcus 

 Agalactiae in participating herds is the main trust of the 

 mastitis program. 



Over the last two years the inspectors have been 

 using an evaluation form at participating farms to identify 

 the actual conditions causing the mastitis problems. We 

 feel that it is fine to identify the organism in the samples 

 and treat the cows as needed, but the identification of the 

 actual problem or problems causing the infection is 



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