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Will state's dairy industry survive Hurricane Katrina?

Article Excerpt
Many people don't realize there even is a dairy industry in Mississippi.

"But it is important particularly where it is concentrated in the south central part of the state near Tylertown and McComb," says Mississippi State University (MSU) Extension ag economist John Anderson. "The dairy industry there was devastated not just by the hurricane, but what happened afterwards. You might even say it is a tragic situation for that industry."

Hurricane Katrina was just the beginning of the problems.

The storm caused extensive wind and water damages. Downed trees destroyed barns, equipment, fences and other facilities.

Farmers lost power from three days to two weeks. Dairy farmers need to milk twice per day, or they can lose milk production for the entire remaining lactation cycle of the dairy cows.

Most of the farms have backup generators, but don't have enough capacity to run milking machines and refrigerate the milk. So many farmers had to dump their milk down the drain.

"It was an absolute mess," Anderson said. "Then, after the hurricane it got very dry. The farmers rely a lot on rye grass pasture in the winter. There was no rye grass until well into January, so that increased the cost of production. It has had a serious impact on...

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