Licensing

If you buy or sell milk in Maine, our laws and rules will affect you.

A dealer is anyone who purchases or receives milk for sale as the consignee or agent of a producer, or handles for sale, shipment, storage or processing within Maine and shall include a producer-dealer and a sub-dealer, but shall not include a store other than an integrated operation.

A producer-dealer means a dealer who produces a part or all of his or her milk or a person who produces milk and sells to a grocery store or dairy products store or similar establishment.

A sub-dealer means any person who does not process milk and who purchases milk from a dealer and sells such milk in the same containers in which he purchased it, but does not include a store.

Each dealer shall pay to the commission an annual license fee of $1.00 and the sum of 5¢ per hundredweight as monthly payments, based on the quantity of milk purchased or produced and sold in Maine. Two and one-half cents per hundredweight may be deducted by dealers from amounts paid by them to their producers of such milk, except that the milk farm-processed into cream for the manufacture of butter is not subject to such sums of 5¢ per hundredweight.

Dealers must file reports together with the prescribed hundredweight fees with the commission at its office in Augusta no later than the 20th of the following month, on forms provided for this purpose, except that dealers who sell less than 100 quarts of milk per day may file reports and pay the prescribed hundredweight fees every 3 months.

In case more than one dealer handles the same milk, the first dealer within the State dealing in or handling said milk shall be deemed to be the milk dealer within the meaning of this section. For the purpose of computing fees, 1/2 pint of cream shall be considered the equivalent of one quart of milk.

In summary, a dealer must be licensed annually, pay a $1.00 license fee annually and pay 5-cents per hundredweight monthly on the milk they handle in Maine. Forms are mailed monthly to dealers and are due back to us by the 20th of the month for the previous month. Small operators under 100 quarts per day can make payments quarterly.

A Maine producer who sells milk only at the farm does not need a license but is subject to the dairy industry fee of 1-cent per hundredweight and is eligible to participate in Maine Dairy Stabilization Program.

Partial Statute Definitions (PDF)

See Chapter 603 link on our homepage for complete Milk Commission Laws.

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