Dairy Producers Seeing High Production, Some Price Recovery

Higher production generally means lower prices, but that might not be the case in the dairy industry.

USDA Outlook Board Chair Seth Meyer said they’ve seen some pretty spikes in production.

“Those cow numbers, we’re somewhere in the range of the highest cow numbers, or near the highest cow numbers, in the last 20 years. We’re looking at about 4.5 billion pounds of increased production year-over-year.”

The dairy industry despite these jumps is not cutting production.

USDA Economist Rob Johannson said that might be because there has been no decrease in price, and there might even be a recovery.

“We know that there have been some investments in new manufacturing plants which is going to drive some of that demand.”

That, in combination with a three percent bump in dairy exports, means that the all-milk price is expected to increase by 15 cents next year.