I'll have to keep this brief, as I'm about to head out, but I'll add more thoughts later.

Dairy has been struggling for a while, with tons of smaller businesses and farms going under. I don't know all the circumstances, cause it's not talked about much, but I have to assume debt is a pretty big factor and I'm also willing to bet that corporate companies pick up those smaller farms at fire sale prices. Borden has been a mess for years, partly due to some bad business decisions made in the '90s that they've struggled to recover from ever since. They kind of remind me of General Electric where they cast too wide a net. Honestly, I'm kind of surprised it didn't happen sooner. If you go to any big box grocery stores, a lot of dairy brands you used to remember aren't there any more. First slowly, but then rapidly, their products were replaced by store brand products, because while store brand soups and chips might be lackluster, dairy is dairy and with store brands, consumers get near same, if not even better, quality without paying for brand names.

All these bankruptcies man, it's always about too much debt, too much risk, and companies growing too big to swiftly adjust to times.

Like I said, I have to head out, but I promise to read your links when I get home tonight.