Milk cash cow is drying up

MARSHALL, Ind. (WTHI) - Mike Jones has been running his dairy farm in Marshall, Ind. since the 1970s and he said he's never seen it this bad.

The cost to produce milk is around 50 percent more than what milk is selling for. Jone said over-production is the problem.

Although it's lowered the price at the grocery store now, it could become a problem for the consumer later.

"We want to keep the cheapest food, but we can't to the point where the people producing it our losing money," Jones said. "If enough of them go out of business we will have a shortage of dairy products."

Jones said he's not sure what the answer is to this problem, but he's just hoping to keep his 100 cows working for more years to come.

Indiana's milk production increased over a million pounds in the last 10 years.

The Hoosier state has more than 1,800 dairy farms.