Lots of residents had to toss out spoiled food from freezers and refrigerators thanks to Hurricane Irma.

  • Dakin Dairy Farms says $30,000 going down the drain daily
  • Stores not taking milk since it needs to be refrigerated
  • Dairy farm is still open for business

At a Manatee County dairy farm, the toll from Irma is causing about $30,000 to go down the drain each day. Workers say they're throwing away thousands of gallons of milk.

"The milk that is produced now, there's just no stores open. All of our milk usually goes south of us," said Jerry Dakin, owner of Dakin Dairy Farms.

In the 16 years he has owned the business, he has never seen so much milk go to waste. Stores aren't taking it because the milk needs to be refrigerated.

Even though the farm can't sell most of its milk, the cows need to continue pumping for their health. That means more and more milk going to waste.

"We've watched 60,000 gallons of milk go down the drain in the form of skim, and that's just an unbelievable amount of money," said plant manager Tony Wahl. "And there's just so much that milk could do to feed people and help people. Just a huge financial loss."

On top of the thousands of dollars lost each day is the structural damage the business suffered during Irma. But not everything was a total loss.

"We're fortunate we have a separator where we're separating the milk and taking the fat off, so that cream can go to ice cream or butter," Dakin said.

The dairy farm is still open for business. Dakin is selling fresh milk straight from the farm.