i am very much worried about the future of the dairy industry

first of all I will say I am grateful I have steady work SO FAR. what I hear is NOT good at all. this morning I was loading milk. I had one of the farmers come up to me asked me if I knew anything about farms dumping milk. so far from what I have been told its mostly farms belonging to the DFA co-op. I haul milk for upstate so far they haven't dumped. I know the local plant that handles the "overflow" is taking 7 million pounds this weekend. the farmers were finally getting a break this year, coming off of 4+ years of very bad prices for their bulk milk. it has now dropped from $20 per hundred to $13 per hundred. I had a farmer that told me, provided he doesn't have to dump milk he will loose $20K per month on price drop alone. I have a feeling this is going to have a very bad impact on the industry. this is the beginning of planting season for my farms and I don't see too much activity on most of the fields, I have one farm that's starting to till up his soil. if the farms go out, they wont come back. the entire local economy will fall into a depression. many truck drivers hauling milk, hauling feed, and manure will be out of work or have little work if this happens.... even milk plant workers will be screwed. agriculture related trucking jobs in this area of the country is a huge industry. property values will tank. this isn't something you can just turn off until cronovirus is over with. many will go bankrupt and get foreclosed on.

this started with people hoarding milk, once the hoarding was done with stores limited purchases of milk. the supply chain caught up and now they have no where to put the milk. I have also heard several plants will be shut down due to illnesses.

my job has its quirks but my employer has always kept me running. I have always had work. if this falls apart I cannot blame them, not their fault. I feel very sad for my farmers, but there is nothing I can do. I am NOT taking any days off until im told there is no work. the only thing I can do is give the farms the excellent service I always have.

im very nervous about all of this.

 

NO schools and NO restaurants are making matter much worse. don't buy margarine, butter is better

 

our dispatches daughter did this. "thank you drivers" every driver has a square/sheet

 

gross? I disagree, although nothing in excess is really a good thing. I think fake stuff is gross. I cant stand margarine YUK. NASTY

 

not true, the market for fluid milk isn't what it once was but people still drink fluid milk. I personally love chocolate milk and my kids drink it by the gallon.

BTW this isn't about subsidies or anything like that. the farms weren't doing too bad until covid-19 hit.

the exports are really bad right now too. no one is shipping between countries anymore. milk used to be turned into powder and sold abroad.