Many of the more than 60,000 dairy farmers in the United States are pinching pennies, selling off their cattle or leaving the family dairy farm behind altogether following a steep drop in milk prices.

"Something has to change soon or else there is going to be a drastic decline in farms,” said Keith Pock, a farmer who owns more than 60 dairy cows in Marathon County.

The problem has arisen because of a drastic decline in the price for raw milk. Milk prices have dropped 35 percent in just the past two months and are down more than 50 percent from last summer after hitting all-time highs in 2007.

Industry analysts agree the reason behind the price drop is simple – too much milk and not enough demand.

"Right now, you know, we're not making money,” Poch said. "To keep going now, there isn't a farmer out there that doesn’t have to borrow money."

Poch is acquiring debt. He says the money he’s making from milk isn’t even enough to cover his operational costs.

“You can only pinch pennies so far and there's no pennies left to pinch."

That’s not even the worst part. Poch fears what will happen in spring when the tractors are running and work in the field begins, pushing his production costs even higher.

"We can't do this just because we love it,” he said. “It's we have to make money and right now we're not doing it."

For now, he is just hoping the low milk prices do not last long.

"Our livelihood is milking cows."

Analysts at the University of Wisconsin expect milk prices to remain down through at least the first half of 2009 and prices later in the year may only be high enough to cover operational costs.