NH dairy farm demise widely misunderstood

As lawmakers prepare to rush a $3.6 million bailout of the state's dairy industry through the Legislature, they have frequently been told that 19 of the state's 120 dairy farms have "gone out of business" in the past year. 
Well, that's not entirely correct.  As it turns out, the 19 farms at issue have not gone out of business. They've just gone out of the wholesale milk business.  That means they are no longer commercial-scale dairy operations, but most if not all are still functioning farms. "There are lots of variables in these situations," said Merrill. "When we say a dairy farm has been lost or gone out of business, we mean it has gone out of the dairy farm business. The farmers might retire from farming completely and sell the farm - or keep the farm and rent the land to another farmer."  The farmer could change to another kind of farming, say raise a few head of beef cattle, raise hay for sale or grow Christmas trees.  "But they are no longer a dairy farm," said Merrill. "So we are talking about farms going out of the dairy business."