There’s more milk than ever in the US but nowhere left to process it, forcing farmers across the Upper Midwest to pour the excess dairy down the drain.
The last time American farmers dumped milk en masse was during the early weeks of COVID-19, when the sudden closure of restaurants and schools threw off a delicate supply and demand balance. Unlike other supermarket staples that can halt the factory line when the market shifts, cows can’t just turn off their udders. Milk is highly perishable and requires expensive transportation, and farmers don’t have room to store it all themselves.
Despite recent memories of the pandemic, “farmers have continued to grow milk production, which has put us back into a surplus situation in the region,” said Nate Donnay, director of Dairy Market Insight at StoneX. Meanwhile, the scheduled end of the school year means kids are drinking less milk in the lunchroom than they were in the spring.
As supply rises, processors can’t keep up. About 90% of Wisconsin’s milk is made into cheese, and most of the plants are already filled to the brim. Labor shortages are making the issue worse, said Bob Cropp, professor emeritus and dairy marketing specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A sudden plant closure in Hastings, Minnesota, earlier this summer due to wastewater issues only exacerbated the issue.
Going forward, some farmers are curbing production by sending more of their dairy cows to the slaughterhouse. “Milk prices are far below farmer cost of production,” Lucas Fuess, senior dairy analyst with RaboBank, said. “I expect the herd size and milk production to decline in the coming months as farmers make adjustments due to the low prices.”
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