Tough, uncertain days ahead for dairy farmers

Dairy farmer Xing Lingqun should have been thrilled last week when one of his cows gave birth to a calf and began to produce milk. But he was not.

"No one wants our milk now. The more milk we produce, the more losses we suffer," said the 61-year-old dairy farmer, who raises 11 cows in nearby Xingjiazhuang village, where 80 percent of the residents are surnamed Xing. "We’re desperate."

Since the baby formula produced by the Shijiazhuang-based Sanlu Group was found tainted with melamine, an industrial chemical, about four weeks ago, the milking station in Xing’s village has stopped accepting any raw milk. Melamine-laced baby formula has caused the deaths of four infants and kidney stones in 53,000 others.