A Living Price for Northeast Dairy

Vermont had 838 dairy farms in 2016. By the end of 2025 it had 426, and the farms disappearing fastest are the small ones.

Four straight years of depressed milk prices have hollowed out the Northeast's small dairies. A farm milking fewer than 200 cows can do everything right and still fail to cover its cost of production. For these farms, the way out runs through price.

What a contract can do

Origin Milk signs its regenerative organic dairies, including farms in Pennsylvania, to five-year contracts at $40 per hundredweight. Commodity organic milk has been running between $25 and $35. A guaranteed price above the market, held for five years, lets a farm plan its herd, its pasture and its debt with some confidence.

Using the whole animal

When a dairy cow stops milking, most farms sell her into the commodity beef market for very little. A regenerative brand can keep that value instead, as ground beef, tallow or bone broth, and return real dollars to the farmer. It is better stewardship and better economics at the same time.

Where we fit

This is our Brand Growth work. The food brands worth building pay farmers a living price and use every part of what they raise. Fullerfield Foundation supports regenerative food businesses across the Northeast with grants and capacity-building, helping them build the track record to raise capital when they are ready to scale.

Building a regenerative food brand in the Northeast? Start at fullerfield.org/apply.