People still are consuming milk, but these days they are less apt to drink it as to eat it in the form of yogurt, butter, ice cream and cheese.
The price farmers are paid for their milk is a complicated formula that is determined by how the milk that their cows produce is used in the marketplace. Milk used as fluid milk brings the farmer the most return, but few people are drinking milk.
“Families aren’t sitting around the table and passing a gallon jug of milk around any more,” said Cindy Weimer, of the American Dairy Association North East.
The organization, whose goal is to help farmers sell more milk, is funded by dairy farmers. Dairy promotion is changing with the way society has changed.
Recently, Weimer was among representatives of various companies and agencies that support the dairy industry who met to talk about what can be done to help farmers deal with the challenges they face.
The Center for Dairy Excellence, a nonprofit agency, funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and private funding, hosted the meeting in Grove City. Jayne Sebright and Alan Zepp from the center led the discussion.
Gary Fulkman, field representative for the dairy cooperative Dairy Farmers of America, shared his insights on the current milk situation. There is a flood of milk, and the America public isn’t drinking as much of it as they once did.
But the public continues to buy other dairy products; the market for cheese, yogurt and butter has been rising.
Weimer cited research that supported the consumption of butterfat in the diet. For years, the American public had been told that dairy fat was causing heart attacks and other health problems. Research has shown that this is not true. Also, the public is turning away from margarine, which is good news for the dairy industry.
“McDonald’s is now using butter on its menu, and other restaurants are following suit,” Weimer said.
The group, which included accountants, farm lenders, and dairy service providers. also discussed new requirements that will require truck drivers to adopt electronic logs.
“This will make it hard for some farms to find a hauler for their milk,” Fulkman said.
Zepp, CDE risk management director, talked about the challenges of the new administration. He had recently attended a meeting about dairy exports.
“Fourteen percent of the country’s milk production is exported,” Zepp said. There is great concern that the U.S. could lose the Mexican and/or the Canadian dairy markets.
“If exports are reduced to 8 or 9 percent of production, we will have a very real problem,” he said.
Consumers express their concern for the quality of the milk that they buy as well as the way that dairy animals are raised. This has resulted in the National Milk Producers Federation developing a program to help dairy farmers document the care of their animals. Speakers said farmers are not very good at letting the public know what they are doing on their farms.
The discussion continued on ways that farmers are communicating with the public. Many are taking advantage of Facebook and posting photos and videos of their animals and families working on their farms. There are several excellent blogs written by dairy farmers sharing their stories. These blogs provide a place where the non-farm public can ask questions and get reliable answers about agriculture and the food that they feed their families.
CDE has several grant programs to help farms make better decisions. The grant period for 2017 has a June 30 deadline. Money is available for creating Dairy Profit Teams, Dairy Transition Teams, Dairy Decisions Consultant and Dairy Transformation Teams.
Source: Allied News
Link: http://www.alliednews.com/news/dairy-industry-faces-challenges/article_18db0a75-0b6a-56cc-b369-d7a1dbb50225.html