In the New England region, the U.S. Department of Agriculture only reports milk cost of production (COP) for Maine and Vermont. Basing Connecticut dairy support payments on USDA COP data for a New England state complies with Connecticut Public Acts 09-229 and 11-48. In the past two years, Vermont has served as the benchmark for this program. The objective of this report is to compare cost of production (COP) and dairy farming characteristics in Vermont and Maine in order to assess the suitability of using one or both New England states as a reference for Connecticut milk COP. To this end, this report compares 2010 USDA milk COP for Vermont and Maine, analyzes secondary data on dairy farming in these states and Connecticut, and conducted phone interview with expert dairy economists in New England and the USDA.