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Milk consumption is down from 247 pounds per person (in 1975) to just 144 pounds (now), and it has put a squeeze on dairy farms. There are about half as many dairy farms as there were in 2003, a loss of more than 38,000 licensed operations, but the remaining are finding ways to adapt. A decrease in sales forced Tom Murray to shut down milk production at his dairy farm in 2019. Murray informed a news outlet and said, “We would still be doing it if we could make money”. Murray had to sell off his prized heifers, including the descendants of his best, Lucinda. Murray said she set the world’s milk production record in 1997 by producing 21 gallons a day, compared to the average of about 14 gallons.

Murray added, “We had good cows, so to make that decision was very personal but also must need for the economic stability of this property. When we’re competing against the Walmarts and the Lowes of this world, on this size scale, we just don’t cut it. We just don’t have that scale of efficiency”. However, dairy is on the decline, cheese consumption has nearly doubled over the last four decades. New York is already among the nation’s top producers and ranks No. 1 in yogurt, cottage cheese, and sour cream production. So, Murray switched his focus from milk to cheese. He owns the Muranda Cheese Company, which he has continued to expand with live music and tasting events.

He said, “We’re trying to create a market to make our own cheese and create a destination here in the Finger Lakes. It just happens to go good with all the craft beverage facilities that are already here”. Doug Young is another that went big with increasing the number of cows at Spruce Haven Farms from 120 to 2,000. Young said, “You have to have high levels of production, production per cow and per farm and then you can spread the cost of expertise. There are so many areas of expertise in dairy that there’s no way one person can be good at all of them. Whoever’s responsible for breeding the cows or feeding the cows or taking care of sick cows, they have to be so good at it, they have to be as good as a veterinarian”.