What's REALLY Going on in Dairy?

If you were to pick the single most UN-informed group of professionals in the USA, you would be picking the LameStream Press.  The story of dairy is a great example.

Put aside the usual "Orange Man Bad" bulls*^# tossed into every story.  Let's concentrate on easily-obtainable facts, shall we?  That wasn't hard to find with one 10-second DuckDuckGo search.

Now, children, open the very first link and you'll get an Excel spreadsheet.  NO MATH REQUIRED, so even J-school people can do this.

Next step:  compare 2016 to 2018 numbers in rows 5, 6, 7, and 8.  THEN compare prices in rows 11, 12, and 13.

Did you learn something from that?  Yes!!  Milk production has gone UP during that period, while prices have been mixed-to-flat.

Now, boys and girls, go to the USDA link called "Dairy Products Consumption"  Open the Excel spreadsheet.  Go ahead, you know how, don't you?

Compare the numbers on "Fluid Milk Consumption" from 1980-2017.  Do you notice anything, boys and girls?  What do you notice?  Can you write it down?

Yes, indeed!!  Fluid milk consumption has gone DOWN from 247 million lbs. to 149 million pounds from 1980-2017.   At the same time, "All Product" consumption, same period, has increased by about the same 100 million lbs.

What do we learn from this?

Dairy farmers who want to stay in business are moving away from "fluid milk" processors to "all products" processors:  yoghurt, butter, ice cream, (etc.)

Now, boys and girls, ask the right questions.  Can you do that, boys and girls?

Well, either that, or Learn to Code.