Michigan milk

I saw a comment on another board about Canadian milk being bought by certain processors for 3-5 dollars per cwt. Is this true or is somebody not have their hearing aid or glasses on? How much is Canadian milk being subsidized by their government these days?
 
Canadian milk isn't subsidized, controlled management only produces what is needed so no surplus or dumping.....
 
MI (and other states) are dumping milk in WI- I've heard prices of $5-6 per cwt. Plants are running over capacity here, and there is NO extra room. 75-100 dairy farmers will be dumped by their processor May 1 (Grassland Dairies). A few of those maybe 15, perhaps more, have found other places to go, many have not. There are some pretty nice farms in the group. This is probably the first time in the past 100 years or so there has not been enough capacity in WI... but again, that is because of distressed milk coming in from MI, SD, etc.

The Canadian issue with this is that some US butter plants (Grassland one of them, 2 in NY too) were selling the the non fat (ultrafiltered milk) into Canada to use in cheese production. Ultrafiltered milk, being a relatively new product, was not covered under trade agreements like NAFTA. Not any more- the border has been closed to those shipments of ultrafiltered milk- hence the layoff of 75-100 dairies here in WI by Grassland.

It is a big mess. Prices for butter, cheese etc are still good, but there is not enough plant capacity to go around. If it were grain, you'd pile it somewhere. Hard to do that with milk.
 
Ya,I know all about the Grassland thing,but a year ago,MMPA was getting more milk than they could unload or process in their plants,and if a tanker was still sitting waiting to unload after a certain time of day,it was redirected and dumped in a manure pit. Unlike Grassland though,MMPA is a guaranteed market and even if your milk is dumped,you still get paid for it.
I just wondered if they had added any capacity over the last year or if dumping was necessary again this year. I thought maybe JDJohn or some other Michigan milk producer would know. I haven't heard anything on the news that's said.
 
There trucks in southwest Wisconsin that are bringing in milk from northern Michigan and Ohio. There making cheddar and whey products.
 
I heard just the opposite,that the producers who got the letter were dropped because of geography,not because of size.
 
The Canadian border is not closed to Ultra filtered milk . It can be shipped in just as before . What has happened is , there is now a plant in Canada making the same product , and selling it for less than what the product from the USA cost. The strong US. dollar only makes it worse .
 
I am a Canadian dairy farmer , and I can tell you right up front , there are zero dollars coming to me from the Canadian government . We hold production Quotas , and can only ship the milk out quota will allow . With supply management there is no over production , and no need for government handouts.Imports are tariff controlled , and USA has some non tariff access to the Canadian market ,around 5% I think .USA enjoys a large trade advantage with Canada currently , some $450,000,000. In my opinion the problem in the USA is just over production , same as most near all the rest of the free world.
 
I think the added capacity is over here. There is a yogurt plant 20 miles from me that used to buy from Foremost and DFA. Today they operate only on loads from MI and other states, purchased for basically the freight.
 
Could be. That would be a third way I've heard it. The first was that there were new tariffs in place, placed by provinces. The 2nd was that the economics still worked, but Grassland lost their buyer due to quality/specification concerns. Whatever the reason, trucks are no longer going north.
 

Heard here on local news Albany NY, that our Dem Senator Chuck S who is the Senate minority whip requested and had a meeting with the Pres., That is hard to picture in it's self; but THEY,(imagine that) are looking at ways to get around or scrub NAFTA to gain more access to Canadian markets.
Personally, I think the US dairy farmers are their own worst enemies. When milk prices are good, rather than paying down and consolidating debt, they expand, and over produce, and when prices go south, they cry to the government for help.
Sorry, but I believe Canada is much smarter with their dairy management programs than the US is.
Loren
 
I know a lot of our milk here in MI is going to Indiana, Indianapolis maybe??? A local trucking company owner told me whenever I wanted extra work, I could haul milk to Indiana for him, that's where he hauls all of his tanks to. Just a hook and run deal at night, but I want nothing to do with hauling milk.
 
Friday night our local Aldi grocery store had skim milk for $1.08 per gallon. Whole milk and 2 percent milk were higher, but still under $1.50 per gallon. Those prices should spur demand up a little. Cheese prices had not dropped yet. Pork prices were also very reasonable, especially compared to beef.
 
I have a couple of guys I know that ship to MMPA. They claim that they get paid for the milk when shipped then a month later they are deducting the money for the milk dumped from the check. So in the end they are not getting paid for it by MMPA that is what they claim. Don't know anymore about it than that.
 
(quoted from post at 13:13:57 04/22/17) I am a Canadian dairy farmer , and I can tell you right up front , there are zero dollars coming to me from the Canadian government . We hold production Quotas , and can only ship the milk out quota will allow . With supply management there is no over production , and no need for government handouts.Imports are tariff controlled , and USA has some non tariff access to the Canadian market ,around 5% I think .USA enjoys a large trade advantage with Canada currently , some $450,000,000. In my opinion the problem in the USA is just over production , same as most near all the rest of the free world.

I completely agree that our (the US) problem is overproduction. Part of the problem here is that when prices go up dairy farmers put in more cows which in turn increases supply and prices drop. Same with everything farmers produce as we have been seeing with corn the last few years. And you hear every excuse in the book for upping production from trying to catch up to wanting to live better. I rather doubt production quotas would work here because someone would sue over them claiming that "free enterprise" was no longer free. So this will continue to be a problem until the farmers get together and self impose quotas.

Rick
 
A Couple form Wisconsin......Dairy Farmers:

'We don't blame you': Wisconsin farmers on nnalert's blast at Canada's dairy industry
With a single letter mailed from a milk processing company in Wisconsin this month, the Sauer family learned their dream livelihood as third generation dairy farmers was suddenly in jeopardy.

The notice, from their milk processing company, told the Sauers their milk was no longer needed because of recent changes in Canada's dairy policies which effectively closed U.S. access to Canada's markets for a product known as ultra-filtered milk.

Some of the Sauer family's milk had been used for that purpose by the processor.

The family can't sell their milk to other processors because all the milk processers in Wisconsin are operating at capacity. It's a widely held view in the state that there's simply too much milk being produced.

That's what's behind President Donald nnalert's claim that Canada is being "very unfair" to Wisconsin dairy farmers. He believes Canadian rules that favour home-grown ultra filtered milk, which is used in production of cheese and other dairy products, are hurting sales for U.S. producers.

Wisconsin farmers kept producing more milk

But nnalert's slam of the Canadian dairy system is characterized by many in the state as misguided, because the real issue is broad overproduction.

Shane Sauer says his 120-head farm east of Madison and other such small operations have long been led to believe the market for milk was near endless.

"Processors have told us for quite a while that they want more milk," he said. "We were told we need to feed the world. So we were just trying to do our part."

Advances in technology allowed dairy farmers everywhere to produce more milk.

"We don't blame you," said Sauer said of nnalert's comments about Canada. "We just want solutions."

Wisconsin alone has more milk cows than in all of Canada.

Small farms squeezed out

As massive dairy farms continue to produce milk at full speed, helping to keep Wisconsin's milk processors supplied, small family operations have been caught in the squeeze.

If the Sauers can't find a buyer for their milk by the end of the month they may have to leave the dairy industry for good.

"And this just breaks our heart," said Jennifer Sauer. "It's not a job for us, it's a lifestyle."

Sarah Lloyd and Nels Nelson, who tend 350 dairy cows on a 400-hectare property northwest of Madison, say their view is that nnalert's got it all wrong.

Blaming Canada for restricting market access to ultra-filtered milk is missing the real issue facing Wisconsin farmers, they said.

"Suddenly everyone was pointing the finger at Canada but that's not really what's going on. We have overproduction here in Wisconsin and we really need to address that here at home," said Lloyd.

Small farms are getting squeezed out and no one's doing anything about it, she said.

"It's not fair and it doesn't help us to use this kind of a red herring of Canada because we need to solve our problem."

? CBC Sarah Lloyd and Nels Nelson, who own a 350-head dairy farm, say Wisconsin has an issue of oversupply that might be solved with supply management.
How about some supply management?

One suggestion from these farmers? Look north, where you might find a solution in the Canadian system of managing the supply of milk.

"If you look at (Wisconsin's) production trends," she said, "We've still been increasing production. And the cheese processing and butter processing plants in Wisconsin are getting more and more full of milk. And now we don't have anywhere else to go with milk and we would be wise to look at some ways to manage our supply. And we're not doing that right now."

Pam Jahnke, Wisconsin's most popular farm broadcaster, said nnalert's pledge to change Canada's dairy policies came as a surprise.

"I can count on one hand how many times in my professional career a president has said anything about dairy -- from a glass of milk to an actual cow. You just don't hear it," she said.

Not expecting much

Jahnke also notes that the issue of ultra filtered milk is a miniscule one in a dairy industry worth some $43 billion US annually to the Wisconsin economy.

Although it's absolutely a critical matter for the farm families directly affected, it's unclear whether anything will come of nnalert's comments, Jahnke said.

"I'm glad he's aware of it," she said. "Do I expect immediate reaction and action? No. And I don't think any dairy farmer in Wisconsin or anywhere else for that matter expects any action either."
 

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