Our dairy industry is a world to itself. It has its own language, a language that has been made so difficult after 60 years under government marketing orders that you truly have to be born on a dairy farm to understand how milk is marketed and priced. I had a small dairy herd when I first returned from the Army. But you do not have to milk cows to know that dairy producers are having a tough time. Forage costs hit all-time highs.
Cull prices are low.
Veal producers aren't buying so dairy producers have no market for bull calves. Major dairy product manufacturers who thought milk prices were going up because of reduced supplies bought large quantities of milk, butter and cheese. Now, they are whittling inventory. Lower sales numbers have translated to record monthly price drops for dairy producers. National average milk prices have dropped about 25 percent over the past few months.