Yesterday, the Associated Press featured a story on the problems facing the dairy industry in Idaho. For AP story click here. Although relatively a young industry in Idaho, it has become the third-leading milk producing state, according to the article. The article noted that:
the last two years, state profits reached record highs and dairy farms expanded. Now, with the waning national and international economy, dairy prices have dropped 44 percent. At the same time, high feed prices have some farmers thinning herds and cutting their losses.
One dairyman, Jack Davis, noted,
"We never just made money hand over fist, but since June I don't think anybody's made a lot of money at all," said Davis, whose father started milking cows in 1940 at the family farm in Kuna, about 20 miles southwest of Boise.Davis also noted that he was losing about $80,000 a month on his 700 head herd.
Finally the story noted, that the federal government is not proposing a bailout of the dairy industry, but the National Milk Producers Federation has stepped in with its own bailout program. The National Milk Producers Federation program began five years ago, and
has shifted 275,269 dairy cows, including 75,000 in the last 12 months, into the beef industry.
The buyout program requires its members to contribute 10 cents to the organization for every hundred pounds of milk their cows produce. Its members produce nearly 70 percent of the nation's milk supply, and the 10 cent surcharge helps finance buyouts.
Galen said the industry needs to take hundreds of thousands of more cows out of the system.
