With milk prices at record lows, it's a tough time to be in the dairy business and many farmers are looking for a way out. Our Katie Gibas tells us about one option thousands of farmers are turning to in this time of crisis.

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"Instead of falling more behind every week, every day, we decided to give up the milking. We thought about it for four to five months, just counting everything, figuring it out, getting rid of the cows, thinking that you might have to work for somebody else when you've been working for yourself for years," said Dale Tamblin, CWT participant.

Dale is one of hundreds of farmers across the country participating in the Cooperatives Working Together, or CWT program. CWT accepts bids from farmers looking to get out of the dairy industry and pays them a certain amount of money per cow. This helps stabilize milk prices by removing some of the supply. The CWT has retired more than 250,000 dairy cows this year, 1,000 of which are from Jefferson County.

"When you work all day and they're not paying what it's costing to make it, it's not worth it. You can only stay in business so long. And with the opportunity for them to buy the cows at my price instead of open market price, that's why we went with the CWT," said Tamblin.

And while this helps farmers and stabilizing milk prices, it costs the local economy millions of dollars.

"When you lose those cows out of the county, you lose that revenue back into the county. And that has a ripple effect- tax base, the agribusinesses, the local stores, the local diners," said Jay Matteson, Jefferson County Agricultural Coordinator.

Since the dairy crisis began, Jefferson County alone has lost 10 dairy farms and farmers say the outlook is pretty bleak too, with the number possibly rising to as many as 40 farms before things turn around.

The CWT program has held four herd retirements in the last year, totaling more than a quarter of a million cows, which is the most ever retired.