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.