On the heels of the nation’s largest dairy distributor, Dean Foods, filing for bankruptcy in November, Borden Dairy Co., a 163-year old business known for its Elsie the cow mascot, has done the same. The Dallas-based U.S. dairy processor and distributor is another casualty of a decline in public milk consumption and higher milk prices.
In a CNN report, Borden says it cannot pay its debts or pension obligations. It has about 3,300 employees and nearly a quarter are covered by a collective bargaining agreement.
The agricultural news shouldn’t be surprising for Wisconsin residents, where sadly, the number of dairy farms across the state keeps tumbling, from 15,904 in 2004 to just 7,476 as of November 2019.
