North Laurel is saying goodbye to one of the few dairy plants left in Howard County.
By the end of the year, the Maola Local Dairies plant will shut down production. The plant, which sits on 91 acres at 8321 Leishear Road, has been in operation since 1956 and will lay off 72 employees, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification notice filed with the Maryland Department of Labor.
The notice states that Maola decided to begin curtailing operations at the ingredients plant in Laurel on June 1, 2026, with full closure planned by Dec. 31, 2026.
“This step reflects how our processing network and milk supply needs have evolved over time,” said Amanda Culp, director of communications and marketing for Maola.
There are no cows at the plant, and it primarily produces bulk ingredients, including ice cream mixes, butter and dried milk powders.
The plant is owned and operated by the Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association, a farmer-owned cooperative that has been operating since 1920, according to its website.
Its closure comes as the state’s dairy industry continues to navigate headwinds in the market.
The Maryland dairy industry faces significant pressures that affect its profitability and sustainability, according to a 2025 report by the Maryland Dairy Oversight and Advisory Council. Production costs for feed, fuel and labor have contributed to a decline in the number of Maryland dairy farms, falling from 505 a decade ago to 283 as of Oct. 1, 2025.
Fewer farms could mean fewer dairy plants, which play a crucial role in the state’s supply chain, converting raw milk into consumer goods and contributing to the state’s economic output. The state’s dairy farming sector generates about $197 million in annual sales, according to 2024 data from the council.
Around the corner from Maola in North Laurel, Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, formerly Nestlé, operates a 705,000-square-foot ice cream plant — one of the largest facilities in the world.
But processing dairy can be costly, from maintaining farmland for cows to operating large-scale facilities.
Jeff Semler, a dairy team member with the University of Maryland’s Agriculture and Natural Resources program, said farmland in Howard County has grown too expensive and that selling the plant property may hold greater value.
“My gut feeling is that the piece of ground where their plant [sits] is too valuable to stay there,” Semler said. “Or the value is more than it would take to upgrade that plant so they can move somewhere else, or move the milk somewhere else.”
The cooperative previously sold 121 acres of land in Laurel in 2018 for residential development.
Semler said the impact of the plant’s closure will primarily be felt by Howard County farmers, which now has only two active dairy farms. He said transportation costs will likely increase as milk is sent to more distant processing plants, a challenge tied to rising land values that have priced some farmers out of the industry.
“When a data center can pay more for a farm than a farmer can pay for it, they’re gonna sell it,” Semler said.
Still, some residents have mixed feelings about the plant’s closure.
Each year in March, equipment failures at the plant caused a foul odor that could be smelled for miles, said Howard County Councilwoman Christiana Rigby.
“I think the sentiment is that people are frustrated at an annual problem,” Rigby said. “Because they would assume that you would want to be proactive about that problem and prevent it.”
Rigby said the land the plant sits on could be repurposed for other community uses.
“It’s right off of [Route 216],” she said. “Residents could certainly use a coffee shop, a daycare, a place to get ice cream, things like that, and have more of a mixed-use retail with maybe senior housing on top.”