CHICAGO (NewsNation) — There’s no shortage of milk in the U.S. these days. In fact, there is so much of it that farmers are being forced to get rid of it.
The issue at hand is that milk is a daily commodity,. Whether there’s a demand for it or not, the cows have to be milked. If a cow is not milked it could cause bruising, sickness and even death.
Once the milk is collected, it must be transported to a dairy facility for processing.
However, now there’s too much milk and it’s forcing farmers to dump it because the facilities can’t keep up with the demand and have run out of space to store the milk.
The processing plants are dealing with labor shortages, especially on the weekends, which means there’s less production of milk products.
In the upper Midwest, the demand for milk is down 20% this year. A Wisconsin-based dairy publication, The Milkweed, said that the daily loss of sales in the region equals about 25 semi-trailers of milk per day.
Because the demand for milk is down, so are the prices.
In June 2022, milk was at $2.30 per gallon, and the latest figures available from the USDA show the price in April has dropped by more than $.50 per gallon to about $1.78 per gallon.
The price of class three milk, which is used to make cheese, is also on the decline. In June 2022, the price was $24.33 per hundredweight and in May, it dropped by more than $8.
Cheese production facilities can’t take advantage of the cheaper milk prices because they also don’t have space to keep refrigerated products such as cheddar and mozzarella cheese.
The last time American farmers were forced to dump so much milk was during the COVID-19 pandemic when schools and restaurants were shut down. During that time, the demand for milk took a huge hit, but eventually, was able to bounce back.
Farmers are hoping that happens again.
In the meantime, some Minnesota dairy farmers are downsizing by selling cows to try and balance out their over-supply issues.