81 jobs gone, one Vermont plant idled since August 17, and about 24 extra miles before hauling starts eating 1% of your gross.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: A DFA board member has now said on the record what most Northeast members suspected: when milk gets rerouted to better-paying plants, farmers pay the added freight themselves. Harold Howrigan — 1,200 Holsteins in Fairfield, Vermont, and a seat on both the DFA and NMPF boards — confirmed to the Boston Globe that the higher returns flow back, minus the freight. DFA idled its St. Albans plant on August 17, cutting 81 jobs per the WARN notice, and is sending that milk to Garelick Farms in Franklin, Massachusetts, and newer western New York capacity. Run USDA’s Federal Order 1 mileage factor of $0.00824/cwt/mile against the August 19 all-milk forecast of $19.85, and the threshold lands at 24 extra one-way miles — that’s where freight eats 1% of gross, and the percentage holds whether you milk 120 cows or 500. At 50 added miles, a 400-cow herd is out $42,106 a year; at 180 miles, you’re handing over 7.5% of gross before feed, labor, or interest. Basis moves too, quietly, because a new receiving plant means a new Order 1 pooling point and a different Class I location adjustment. If your milk moved this summer and nobody has given you the mileage in writing, the table below is where you start.
Harold Howrigan’s family operation milks 1,200 Holsteins across four facilities in Fairfield, Vermont, and he sits on the boards of both Dairy Farmers of America and the National Milk Producers Federation. When DFA idled its St. Albans plant this month and began routing that milk to better-paying plants, Howrigan told the Boston Globe the higher returns do flow back to farmers. Then he added the part that lands at the farm gate: it’s “not all gravy,” because farmers pay the increased transportation costs themselves.
| Stakeholder | What Changed | Notice Given | Dollar/Job Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| St. Albans plant workers | Plant idled Aug 17, 2026 | 15 minutes before public announcement | 81 jobs cut per WARN filing |
| 200-cow Northeast farm | Milk rerouted +50 miles to Garelick Farms/western NY | No written mileage notice required | $21,053/yr (2.1% of gross) |
| 400-cow Northeast farm | Milk rerouted +100 miles | No written mileage notice required | $84,213/yr (4.2% of gross) |
| Teamsters Local 597 | Filed federal suit alleging retaliation | TRO granted, then denied on Aug 20 | Case moved to arbitration, no ruling yet |
That’s a cooperative director describing where the bill goes. Up the road, 81 people lost their jobs at the St. Albans creamery, per the WARN notice DFA filed with Vermont on June 17. If your milk moved through that plant, freight is the line that keeps costing money long after the news trucks leave. Here’s what changed, what it costs, and what you can ask for this month.
What Changed at St. Albans, and When
DFA announced on June 17 that it would idle the St. Albans plant and the adjoining creamery and supply store effective August 17, citing “broader operational and network changes.” The WARN notice filed the same day listed 81 employees at 158 Federal Street. DFA also told VTDigger it was providing affected employees with transition support, including severance pay.
Tom Bellavance, who represents Vermont on the DFA board, gave members a more specific read at a Grand Isle meeting in July: Vermont milk production has been flat for years while American demand shifted toward protein — yogurt, protein powder — and away from what that plant was built to make. St. Albans was a balancing facility, making cream, skim and powder. Balancing plants soak up volume when fluid demand dips, and Bellavance argued that DFA earns more trucking that milk to higher-value fluid plants instead. Where’s it going? He named Garelick Farms in Franklin, Massachusetts, along with DFA’s newer western New York capacity.
Curtis Clough, president of Teamsters Local 597, framed the stakes past the plant gate in an August 20 statement: “Dairy farmers in the St. Albans area are already facing enormous pressure from rising costs, volatile milk prices, and an increasingly concentrated dairy industry. Idling this creamery would only make those challenges worse by disrupting a facility that local farmers, workers, and families have relied on for generations.” Worth noting he didn’t reach for the retaliation argument in June. Clough told Vermont Public at the time it was “possible” DFA was retaliating for the fall strike, but pointed to broader economic forces squeezing Vermont dairy.
What the Court Actually Ordered
Local 597 later sued in federal court alleging the idling was retaliation for a two-week strike in fall 2025, and said it had found an internal memo supporting that claim. According to the complaint, supervisors allegedly told employees the closure “never would have happened if it was not for the Union,” and one described the strike as “disgusting.” DFA calls the memo fake and told reporters any suggestion the closure was retaliatory is “ridiculous and inaccurate.” The company has also said the plant faced financial headwinds for years, a point WCAX reported industry observers echoed. None of these allegations has been tested in arbitration or court.
Judge William K. Sessions III granted a five-day temporary restraining order on August 17 in case 2:26-cv-00281, District of Vermont, ordering DFA to “cease implementation of the St. Albans facility closure” until the court could weigh the evidence on August 20. At that hearing, he declined to extend the order, and the dispute moved to arbitration.
Two details from that hearing matter. DFA’s attorneys told the court operations had already ceased before the restraining order was issued. And the protection against dismantling equipment or selling the building rests on DFA’s assurances in an informal arrangement Sessions brokered — not a standing injunction. The plant could reopen if the arbitrator finds the closure improper.
How This Plays Out on Real Farms
St. Albans isn’t one closure. It’s the fourth in about 18 months in that corner of Vermont. Booth Brothers in Barre, the state’s last commercial fluid bottler, closed in April 2026 after roughly 80 years. Franklin Foods in Enosburgh Falls, a 125-year-old cream cheese maker, closed this summer. Perrigo’s infant formula plant rounds out the four. The cows didn’t leave. The doors did.
| Plant | Product | Closed | Years Operating | Jobs Affected |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Booth Brothers, Barre | Fluid milk bottling | April 2026 | ~80 years | Not disclosed in reporting |
| Franklin Foods, Enosburgh Falls | Cream cheese | Summer 2026 | 125 years | ~100 (down to ~20 under new owner) |
| Perrigo infant formula plant | Infant formula | 2025–2026 window | N/A | Not disclosed in reporting |
| St. Albans creamery (DFA) | Cream, skim, powder (balancing plant) | August 17, 2026 | Decades | 81 (per WARN notice) |
Mary White farms in Corinth and serves as president of the Vermont Farm Bureau. Her worry isn’t the rate — it’s whether the truck comes at all. “If they say, ‘No, you’re too far out there,’ we’re out of business,” she told the Boston Globe. That’s the risk that never shows up on a spreadsheet. In the same reporting, Whitney Hull, a dairy herd management educator with UVM Extension, described the mood plainly: “It’s felt like quite a blow. Dairy farmers are upset, and they’re frustrated, and they’re like, ‘What does this mean for us?'”
So here’s the math that answers her question. USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service sets a Federal Order 1 mileage rate factor of $0.00824 per hundredweight per mile. Find your herd size and your added distance:
| Herd Size | Annual Volume (cwt) | +24 Miles | +50 Miles | +100 Miles | +180 Miles |
| 120 cows | 30,660 | $6,063 (1.0%) | $12,632 (2.1%) | $25,264 (4.2%) | $45,475 (7.5%) |
| 200 cows | 51,100 | $10,106 (1.0%) | $21,053 (2.1%) | $42,106 (4.2%) | $75,792 (7.5%) |
| 400 cows | 102,200 | $20,211 (1.0%) | $42,106 (2.1%) | $84,213 (4.2%) | $151,583 (7.5%) |
| 500 cows | 127,750 | $25,264 (1.0%) | $52,633 (2.1%) | $105,266 (4.2%) | $189,479 (7.5%) |
Assumes 70 lb/cow/day, 365 days, one-way added miles at USDA’s $0.00824/cwt/mile. Percentages are added freight as a share of gross milk revenue at USDA’s August 19 all-milk forecast of $19.85/cwt. Per-cwt cost: 24 miles = 19.8¢, 50 miles = 41.2¢, 100 miles = 82.4¢, 180 miles = $1.48. That $42,106 shows up twice on purpose — 200 cows at +100 miles and 400 cows at +50 miles land on the same number, because double the volume at half the distance is the same freight bill.
Look down the percentage columns. They don’t move. A 120-cow herd and a 500-cow herd give up the same share of gross at the same added distance — the dollars scale, the pain doesn’t discriminate. And the National Milk Producers Federation pegs real-world hauling higher, around $0.92 to $1.00 per cwt per 100 miles, so treat these as your floor, not your estimate.
Why Did the 24-Mile Line Move In?
Because milk got cheaper, not because freight got dearer. Earlier Bullvine modeling put the 1%-of-gross threshold at 25 to 26 added miles using a $21.07 blend. USDA has since revised its 2026 all-milk forecast down twice — to $20.70 in June, then to $19.85 as of August 19. Same mileage factor, thinner revenue underneath it, so the line pulls in to about 24 miles.
That’s the part worth sitting with. Every dollar off the milk price shortens the distance you can absorb before freight becomes a line item you manage rather than one you ignore. Where does your breakeven sit if hauling jumps 40 to 80 cents a cwt?
The Mechanics Behind the Outcomes
One reroute hits your check twice, and you’ll only see one of them coming. The hauling deduction climbs with every mile and sits right there on the stub. Basis is the quiet one.
Under Federal Order 1, the location of the plant receiving your milk feeds into Class I differentials and your pooling point. When a nearby plant goes idle, your milk gets pooled somewhere else on the map, and that new point carries its own location adjustment. Order 1’s March 2026 schedule lists St. Albans/Swanton at a 4.20 Class I differential with a −0.90 adjustment; Middlebury sits at 4.30 and −0.80. Small numbers that move real money at volume.
Both directions were in play through 2026. The June 2025 FMMO reform lifted Class I location differentials across the Northeast, which helps. Pulling the other way, the new make-allowance provisions trimmed class prices by roughly 85 to 93 cents per cwt nationally in their first three months, pulling an estimated $337 million out of producer pools according to American Farm Bureau analysis. Longer haul, thinner pool.
There’s a structural reason this keeps happening. Laura Ginsburg, Vermont’s dairy strategy manager, put it bluntly to the Globe when describing where processors now build: “They build a plant and the milk is gonna come.” Energy and labor cost less elsewhere. Vermont Agriculture Secretary Anson Tebbetts calls dairy a $5.4 billion industry in the state and says what it needs is more cows. Those two statements sit uneasily together, and that tension is the story of the last 18 months. It’s also the slow version of a trend we’ve mapped before —
What Can You Actually Demand in Writing?
More than most members do. You can request, in writing, which plant is taking your milk, what the freight and location differential are, and how you’ll be told when the route changes again. That last one is the question almost nobody asks. The first reroute you see coming because it’s in the news. It’s the second and third — quiet, no press release — that catch you behind the math.
Notice how little warning the people closest to the plant got. Clough told VTDigger the decision came “out of the blue,” and that DFA informed workers 15 minutes before its public announcement. A DFA spokesperson confirmed to VTDigger that workers were alerted that Wednesday morning. If the notice window for 81 employees was fifteen minutes, it’s fair to ask what yours looks like for a routing change.
Worth knowing what you won’t automatically get. Federal rules require private handlers to itemize component prices, deductions, and the producer price differential, while cooperatives are exempt as farmer-owned. A University of Wisconsin Extension report found 70% of cooperative pay statements lacked full explanations for deductions over $0.25 per hundredweight. So if a deduction on your statement says “market adjustment” and nothing else, asking for the breakdown is a reasonable request, not an accusation.
Options and Trade-Offs for Farmers
Get your routing in writing. That’s the 30-day move. Sit down with your field rep and ask for a farm-specific routing and hauling profile for the next 12 months: which plant, how many miles, what rate per cwt, what location differential, and how you’ll be notified when it changes. Makes the most sense right now, while arbitration keeps St. Albans in limbo and nobody’s committed to a permanent network. Costs you one meeting and the nerve to ask twice. A co-op can decline to put any of it on paper — and that answer tells you something too.
Price an alternative handler inside your radius. Worth doing if another processor sits within 75 to 100 miles, and it requires running the same math on the new option: basis, premiums, volume commitment, freight. The catch is real. Writing in the Vermont Daily Chronicle on June 22, White argued the Northeast conventional market has effectively closed to new entrants, pointing to cooperatives limiting new memberships. Make the call anyway before you assume the door’s shut.
Look at what John Ovitt did. He spent 37 years working in the Enosburgh Falls cream cheese plant. When Hochland decided to shut its U.S. operations, Ovitt didn’t just stay through the closure — he moved to buy the building himself and reopen it with about 20 workers, down from the nearly 100 it once employed. That’s not a template most farms can copy. But it’s the clearest argument going that nearby processing is worth something beyond the jobs number, and if you’re within reach of a small processor, a school, or a direct market, shaving 10 to 15% of your volume into a shorter, higher-value channel buys room when long-haul costs spike. It won’t replace a big contract. Nobody should pretend otherwise.
Ask the base-program question before it’s asked of you. In October 2019, Agri-Mark told members that milk shipped above each farm’s base would carry a $5/cwt penalty starting that January. DFA says it doesn’t cap member production and hasn’t announced any base program tied to these closures. The Agri-Mark episode isn’t a prediction. It’s evidence that when a region runs short of plants, the rules members live under eventually change.
Key Takeaways
- Audit your added mileage. If your route lengthened more than 24 miles and your hauling deduction didn’t move to match, ask for the numbers in writing — that’s the 1% of gross line at 70 lb/cow/day against USDA’s August 19 forecast of $19.85, whatever your herd size.
- Demand a specific plant destination. If your co-op named a state but not a plant, you can’t run freight or basis math. Garelick Farms in Franklin, Massachusetts is a named destination; “New York, Massachusetts, or Maine” isn’t something you can budget against.
- Calculate your basis swing. If your milk moved to a different Order 1 location, pull both Class I location adjustments and price the difference — basis hides where the freight line doesn’t.
- Lock down your notification terms. If you don’t have a written 12-month routing-and-notification commitment, that’s the highest-value ask on your table this month. Fifteen minutes was the notice DFA’s own workers got.
- Pressure-test your over-base exposure. If you ship above base, put the Agri-Mark 2019 precedent in front of your co-op and ask how excess milk gets handled if regional processing keeps tightening.
- Run your buyer concentration past your lender. If a single buyer takes a large share of your monthly volume, ask where their concentration comfort line sits — and whether your current mix clears it.
An arbitrator will decide whether idling St. Albans was proper, and the plant could reopen if that ruling goes the union’s way. Meanwhile, the milk moves every other day regardless of what’s on the docket. Howrigan already described who carries the transportation cost — so do you know your own number, or will you find it on a stub three months from now?
Find your row in the table above, then pull three milk checks and see whether the deduction matches.
This article is based on court records, WARN filings, and published reporting available as of August 25, 2026. Allegations described in the Teamsters’ complaint have not been tested in arbitration or court.
Complete references and supporting documentation are available upon request by contacting the editorial team at editor@thebullvine.com.
Learn More
- $34.4 Million Later, the Rule That Hid Your Pay Price Is Still on the Books — Exposes the federal carve-out shielding dairy cooperatives from itemizing hauling and basis deductions, arming you with specific accounting questions to demand transparent net pricing on your monthly stub.
- $19.85 milk price forecast 2026: your base year decides — Breaks down how fixed cooperative base structures push expansion milk into discounted excess tiers, costing a 400-cow herd up to $204,765 in lost purchasing power against USDA’s baseline price forecast.
- DFA’s Union War: Is Your Milk Check Collateral Damage in This Billion-Dollar Battle? — Follows the money on cooperative labor disputes and corporate restructuring, revealing how processing disruptions and union standoffs quietly shift risk, freight, and margin losses directly back to member-owners.
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