2020 Was A Year Of Two Extremes For Idaho Dairy

For the dairy industry, 2020 was a year of two, very different halves. Dairy West's Vice President of Strategic Communications Kristi Spence says 2020 started off very strong, which was welcomed news after several years of low milk prices. However the COVID pandemic brought the supply chain to a standstill, forcing milk prices to plummet, creating hard times for Idaho producers.

"Things rebounded I think faster than people expected. That was for a number of reasons, but one of which was the food box program initiated by the USDA. It allowed some dairy products to leave the market and then be put into the hands of people who really needed them in the community who were hungry."

In May Diary West began to work with others in the industry to find a way to take some of the milk that was being discarded and give it to processors who had extra capacity.

"So we started a program that we called Curds + Kindness which was really a regional, industry-wide effort to match that product that didn't have a home and provide it to people in need. That worked really well. All told, by the end of the year we were able to donate over a million pounds of dairy products into the hands of people who needed them."

As 2020 continued, Spence says prices stabilized for the second half of the year. She still expects volatility and uncertainty in 2021. Much of the industry is still waiting to see what happens not only when it comes to the pandemic, but also addressing supply and demand issues.

On a positive note, Spence says the restaurant outlook appears to be improving as expected, and the USDA will continue to mitigate some of the pandemic's damage by maintaining its Farmers to Families food box program.​

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