Rell budgets $20M in dairy aid

Gov. M. Jodi Rell says she has included $20 million over the next two years in her latest budget to help preserve the state's $1 billion dairy industry and the jobs it supports by providing assistance to struggling Connecticut dairy farmers.

Connecticut currently has 151 dairy farms that use more than 83,000 acres in cropland, of which 30,000 acres of is preserved farmland. That is down from 500 farms in 1990 and 210 in 2007. During the first quarter of 2009, state dairy farmers received approximately $1.07 a gallon of milk produced, compared to $1.42 a gallon in 1998, a drop in price of nearly 25 percent.

The state dairy industry employs about 4,200 workers.

"We cannot afford to lose more of our farms, because when they are gone - they are gone and so too are a major economic sector and unique way of life," Rell said. "The thousands of jobs the dairy industry creates and related industries it supports would be lost."

Rell ordered the state Department of Agriculture to develop a plan that would use the funds ($10 million in fiscal 2010 and $10 million in fiscal 2011) for allocations based on needs and other factors. She is also directing the agriculture commissioner to work with other Northeastern states to help bring change and a solution to the federal milk pricing system.