Milk price

JL2510 · Jun 22, 2020

I had posted pictures before of my families dairy farm. My Grandfather and his dad, brother in law, and a few brothers incorporated and built this farm around '63/'64. Grandad sold the cows in the buyout of '86. I was 4 when they left and I remember very little. I saw in Lancaster Farmer this weekend that milk prices were listed around $21.50/cwt now. Last I had noticed a few weeks ago, seemed like it was well below $15, maybe even $13. I know nothing makes up for the many years of bad prices and everyone's operation is different, but I was just curious how $21.50 is? Is that generally a profitable price, just ok, not enough? I see these prices and they mean nothing to me. Just wondered what I was looking at business wise, if you know what I mean.

JL2510 · Jun 22, 2020

doggone pictures flipped when I posted. Just turn your head sideways or layover your computer.

NY 986 · Jun 22, 2020

I'm not in the business but the last farmer talk I heard was around 16.00 per hundred weight shortly before the lockdown happened. 21.50 would mean a profit in most situations unless a recent expansion or upgrade was on the ledger to be paid off.

paul · Jun 22, 2020

I think the neighbor is happy when milk is over 18 and not happy when it’s below 16. There are of course penalties and bonuses which they get along the way so not sure of the real price breakdown.

These prices feel like a short term bump, normal will come along soon....

The big mega dairies keep building, 3000 cows at a time, leverage their operation bigger and bigger. They can monopolize market share and deal with Walmart, Costco, etc directly, the mega stores like dealing with one supplier vs 100 so that’s the way it goes. Lot more to it, but a big part....

Paul

casecollectorsc · Jun 22, 2020

Bought my own farm in 72 and built my own pit and parlor. Copied a Sta-Rite straight through design parlor...milk was about $6.50 a hundred.

JL2510 · Jun 22, 2020

I wondered about prices then. Ive never asked Grandad, I'm sure he'd remember. They were milking over 200 at the end. He said there were 3 buyouts. One brother took one, he took the 2nd, and another brother took the 3rd. He says "there's life after cows!". I remember just enough from those days to be curious about dairies still. I live across from one now and now and then get a whiff that brings back a memory.

Donald Lehman · Jun 22, 2020

Jeff got $12 for last months milk. One fellow told me he got $9. The $21 figure is before price balancing differential will be taken out. the real price will more likely be in the $17-$18 range, from what Jeff tells me.

SHALER · Jun 22, 2020

JL2510 im guessing your are in the northeast if you are perusing Lancaster Farming. IS $21.50 a "good" price? Hard to say, many variables. I did not know it was that high as usually something in the 20's equates with something over $4 in the store. Milk is not quite $4 where I live. As you may know , there has been a huge shift in milk production geographically over the last few decades going to the west. Some of that is following the population, but most is just getting to low cost of production areas. My buddy in Ohio last year when things were rougher than they are now, sold some heifers to a dealer that was shipping them to Dalhart TX, the epicenter of the dust bowl 85 years ago. Funny how things change. So, 21.50 could be a gold mine to guy in Dalhart, but a mere subsistence wage to someone in say Maryland that only milks 100 head and has significant debt to service.

JL2510 · Jun 22, 2020

I'm in central Maryland. We get the "Southern Edition" of Lancaster Farmer. In the 60s and 70s there were lots of dairy farms in this area. Not many left now and several went out the last 2 years. From 1000 head down to 100 head all the same. I can't blame them one bit. Im a business owner myself and I cannot imagine putting the time, effort, and capital I see these dairy guys putting in and not being able to get a good profit to show for it. 21 seemed higher than I noticed in the past so I guess I was hoping they were getting some relief from that. Ive read some about the consolidation going on in the industry.

We have one friend here however that stuck his neck out and put in his own processing equipment. I was skeptical at first because there are a few other small, local processors trying the same thing and how many does one area need? The virus shutdowns and shortages along with a few other timely events and good business sense turned out to be a blessing for him though and he's thriving now. He said if he wouldn't have been neck deep in the middle of getting that plant set up he probably would've sold out this year too.

Bret4207 · Jun 23, 2020

(quoted from post at 21:37:14 06/22/20) Jeff got $12 for last months milk. One fellow told me he got $9. The $21 figure is before price balancing differential will be taken out. the real price will more likely be in the $17-$18 range, from what Jeff tells me.

Farms are going out up here Don. Neighbors are getting surplus milk for our pigs, guy has to dump or get rid of an extra 7K lbs a month from what I'm told. Terrible, just terrible. And you know things re only going too get worse under NYS leadership.

mrslesq · Jun 23, 2020

Nice pictures! When I started milking on my own in 1973, milk was $4.93/cwt. Bouncy trip ever since. I sold the cows in 2010.

tractorkrum · Jun 24, 2020

Friend told me on Sunday that his last milk check was just over $13.00 a hundred. That was up from under $10.00 a short while ago, but down from $19.00 at the beginning of the year. He is having a real tough time keeping it going. Does some cash cropping, but those prices are not real good either. This is in West Central Wisconsin.

Milk price

JL2510

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NY 986

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paul

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casecollectorsc

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JL2510

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