Why Yogurt Makers Aren't Flooded with MIlk

This is the most balanced and accurate article I have read so far on New York's so-called yogurt "boom". The author should be complemented on his excellent research into a complex topic.

People who don't understand the way milk is priced have been expecting farmers to be all excited about this new market for their product. Instead, far from expanding to milk more cows, dozens are simply giving up and going out of business. The new market doesn't mean any more money in their milk checks and it doesn't lower the record high energy and feed expenses they are facing.

It's okay not to understand milk pricing, by the way, because it is so ridiculously complicated as to have been written in hieroglyphs that have no key. However, the author of this article spoke to farmers and industry members who do get it, and they made the situation as clear as possible.

If you have time, read the whole article for excellent insight into what is going on with NY milk production and all the new yogurt plants.

The Farm Bill and the Dairy Margin Insurance Boondoggle

Hermie

Read an excellent opinion on the topic here. I can't believe everyone is so complacent about this matter.

Goat

This story kinda got mine. 2009 was one of the worst years for dairy farmers.....ever. We all burned through way too much equity trying to somehow stay in business. Many of us have not begun to dig out of that hole even now. I am not sure the author intended to suggest that we should enjoy prices that low if they increase fluid consumption, but I sure hope not.

Also fluid milk is far from all of the milk marketing story. For one thing our price is based on cheese sales on the CME. Cheese consumption has climbed steadily over the past decade, while prices fluctuated all over the place. 

And notice the suggestion of shelf-stable milk there? I see that trend as a way to import a lot more milk, displacing a lot more domestic milk from the market. Components brought in under all sorts of names already displace millions of pounds of domestic fluid milk, contributing in all likelihood to the demise of many family dairy farms. 

Alternately cheap West Coast milk could show up in our markets quite easily too. If your milk will keep for six months without refrigeration you can move it a l-o-o-o-ng way before it spoils. It's already happening down under.

Considering the conditions under which milk is produced in many of the countries from which we import a lot of stuff (remember China and melamine? Their dairy industry is rebounding rapidly right now.) I shudder to think of the future.

The Realities of Dairy Farming.

Here are a few links on the never-ending saga of low prices for fluid milk at the farm gate  and perhaps a little insight into some of the whys.

First a little bit about the probable impact of the Yogurt Summit recently held in NY. I strongly agree with the writer. Any shortage of milk will self-correct as soon as farmers can make back their cost of production. Offer them a chance at a profit and you won't know what to do with all the milk.

And here is a little behind the scenes stuff that you can interpret any way you want to. Sometimes conspiracy theorists are right after all.

A bit from the Land Down Under where farmers are up against much the same forces as we are in the USA.

A heart-breaking story of too little too late for one farm, that could easily represent many other farms.

And so you have a chance to smile, a short interview with one of my favorite farm writers, Patricia Leimbach.

Yogurt and the Mailbox Price

Interesting article here, written by Sherry Bunting. Thought provoking.

Foundation for the Future 2

The more I read about this program the less I understand it and emphatically the less I like it. Seems as if Kozak is assuming there is a consensus among farmers that this is a good program. That is very much not the case. Have yet to meet a singe well-informed farmer who wants any part of it.

Still no on/off switches on cows, to help us through the supply management periods, when we either produce less milk, or just don't get paid for it.....(dang it, if there were on/off switches weekends would be a lot happier around here!) And if folks just kill cows when supply management kicks in...well, I'll bet that will go over big with beef growers, not to mention how the cows will feel about it.

And I flat love the idea of sending money to the Treasury.

Foundation for the Future

FFTF-Rainbow Stew for the Dairy Farmer

Is a new dairy pricing program that the National Milk Producer's Federation is foisting on farmers proposing to Congress. It includes monetary assessments on milk checks, some of which will go straight to the Treasury to help lower the deficit, the rest of which will be administered by yet another board. We dairy farmers already have boards reaching into our pockets to fund the Dairy Check Off and CWT among other programs, so of course we should be just delighted to crowd a couple more hands in there. The board will decide what generic milk promotion will get the funds that they take from us. Of course generic milk promotion has been proven not to work...or at least not very well, but why worry about that?

And then there is the whole supply management thing. If the supply management tool kicks in farmers will only be paid for a percentage of their previous three months average milk production. The theory is that they will produce less to avoid that. Since cows don't have on/off switches I wonder how that will be done. Feed less? Kill a few cull some cows? I don't imagine that it will be pretty.

Plus I figure if they lower the amount of milk US farmers are permitted to produce, someone else will step up to the plate...er.....glass...and fill the void. Melamine anyone?

Supposedly farmers are in favor of this new, improved, dairy policy, but really, I have yet to talk to one who is, unless they are on a cooperative board and toeing the company line although I have read a few positive comments on ag media stories. Most folks seem pretty skeptical.

One good thing I can say is that it is planned to decouple prices from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, a move that is long overdue.

However this pup, and it is a pup, will probably fly through Congress because it does away with the dairy support price program and milk marketing orders are "simplified".

Most ag publications are talking about FFTF as if it were Rainbow Stew for dairy farmers. Of course it is obvious that they listen to the pundits at NMPF and not so much to actual producers. I don't really think that many cooperatives ask farmers how they feel about things like this....they are more inclined to tell them what to think instead.

Here is some analysis of what is going to happen if this is passed.

The Future of Farming

Here is a video from Channel 9 about Kirsten Gillibrand talking to farmers about the ongoing loss of farms due to high costs and low milk prices.

How Much Actual Cheese

The "Noses" along the Mohawk River

In boxed Mac and Cheese? You might be surprised.

Dairy Stories We are Keeping an Eye on

John Bunting linked to an extensive story in the Milkweed on yogurt and the standards of identity for dairy foods....which are largely ignored by the FDA. If you are interested in what is going on with the foods you trust it is worth taking time to read the whole article. Yogurt is among the most successful and fastest-growing segments of the dairy industry. What a shame that it is no longer the simple, wholesome product we used to enjoy. (Bear in mind that MPCs and milk fractions are largely imported and not held to any standard of origin or content.)

And, the EPA has backed off on its plan to treat milk on farms as if it were oil or fuel, requiring extensive, expensive, and totally pointless prevention and clean-up plans.

More Tainted Chinese Milk

With deaths