Grafton Cheese paying premiums directly to Vermont farmers

GRAFTON, Vt. — Grafton Village Cheese Co., makers of Vermont cheddar cheese, will begin paying its local milk suppliers a special premium while milk prices are below the cost of production.

The company is working in concert with its two milk co-ops Agri-Mark and DMS, both of which have given Grafton Cheese permission to send checks directly to the farmers.

All of the milk used for Grafton Cheese is from Vermont family farms, located primarily in southern and central Vermont.

Ohio connection

“As a high quality Vermont cheddar cheese producer, we depend upon milk from Vermont dairy farms, and we are very concerned about the viability of our Vermont dairy farmers at a time of extremely low milk prices,” said Adam Mueller, president of Grafton Village Cheese.

“Consequently, we are working with our milk suppliers to provide farmers in southern and central Vermont an additional premium for the milk they provide to our Grafton Village Cheese plants in Grafton and Brattleboro.”

Mueller is a native of Ohio. His family owns and operates Minerva Dairy in Minerva, Ohio. As a fifth generation cheesemaker, he has spent the past 15 years working in a variety of frontline and management positions at Minerva Dairy.

Milk prices

Starting in April, while milk prices are below cost of production, Grafton Cheese will pay farmers an additional premium based on the butterfat, protein and somatic cell content of the milk.

As the class three milk price increases, the premium will decline on a sliding scale, becoming zero when milk price reaches $20/cwt.
Grafton Cheese pays significant quality premiums and handling costs for its milk to its co-ops.

This new initiative is an additional premium that will be mailed directly to the farmers by Grafton Cheese.

Information. More information on Grafton Village Cheese Company can be found online at http://www.graftonvillagecheese.com.

Now you can follow Farm and Dairy on Twitter.