MONROE — Dairy farmers from 25 farms in Green County are left without a home for their milk after Maple Leaf Cheesemakers, Inc. announced Oct. 8 that the Monroe plant will no longer be used for cheesemaking, an Oct. 12 press release from the co-op said.  

Maple Leaf Cheesemakers, Inc. will stop making cheese at the Monroe facility by Nov. 20. The departure follows a temporary contact extension while the cooperative and cheesemakers discussed potential future contact agreements.

Since 1982, the co-op has hired Maple Leaf Cheese, Inc. to make cheese out of their milk. As the partnership reached the end of its long-term term contract, the pair struggled to find an agreement.

A new contract had been in the works for around 18 months, but with COVID-19 and a struggling economy, the cheesemakers decided to cease operations at the plant.

Because the transition to a new cheesemaker will leave the co-op members without a home for their milk in the meantime, the co-op’s primary focus at the moment is to find a temporary home for the farmers’ milk until a new cheesemaking partnership is reached. The co-op board is working on negotiations with new cheesemakers.

“We have to play fair otherwise we lose our farmers,” treasurer and spokesperson Bob Bade said. He said that the co-op is working on finding a new cheesemaker to fairly pay for the milk.

With no agreement reached, the shutdown will put an end to the 38-year partnership.

The co-op is working with business advisor Will Hughes to plan for the future. Hughes said that, though the split is stressful and uncertain for the farmers, the time had come for the partnership to end. “A business relationship has run its course,” he said.

The farmers are now left without a home for their milk, but that hasn’t stopped them from remaining optimistic about the future. “Everyone is standing behind us and wants us to move forward,” Bade said.

Despite uncertainty, Bade said that the farmers agreed that they would prefer to stay in a co-op together, rather than to find separate outlets for their product. Th co-op has been in business since 1910. 

To stay operational for more than a century, the farmers have relied heavily on community support and interest.

“It takes a village of support,” Hughes said. The cooperative board has already found itself met with support and understanding by the dairy and cheese industries.

For now, operations will continue until the November deadline, when the plant will undergo an indefinite shutdown as the co-op works to develop new cheesemaking partnerships.