New Hampshire leaders target December aid for dairy farmers

An emergency relief fund created in 2008 to help New Hampshire dairy farmers was never funded, but state officials said Monday they want to get money to farmers struggling with low milk prices and drought conditions by December. Nineteen of the state’s 120 dairies have closed in recent months. The state had lost 10 dairies over the previous four years combined. New Hampshire’s agriculture commissioner, Lorraine Merrill, said it’s time to “stop the hemorrhaging.” “We’ve been losing dairy farms at an accelerated pace, and we know that we have a number of them that are really kind of perched on the edge of a cliff at this point, getting bids from cattle dealers on how much they would get for their herds,” Merrill said.  The board said it plans to come up with an amount by next week and help create a task force of legislators to hold a hearing on the proposal. It said the goal is to get the money to farmers by the time the Legislature is sworn in Dec. 7. “Some of these farmers aren’t going to make it to Christmas,” said Republican Rep. Bob Haefner, of Hudson, chairman of the fund’s board.