Farm First Dairy Looks Ahead To 2022

Dairy farmers have a bright outlook for 2022 with higher milk prices and demand. Jeff Lyon, General Manager at Farm First Dairy Cooperative, said milk prices look good to start the year.

“Well, right now, I say when you're sitting here and looking at milk prices, so you know, traditionally, we'd have that November-December holidays kind of into January-February demand down, and you look at where prices are at now in the low $20s. $22. It looks like the foreseeable future, that going to continue.”

However, Lyon cautioned, there will be several headwinds in 2022.

“We love to see we love those high prices, but there's going to be some additional costs in feeding those animals. Input costs, I know there's real concern from our members on fertilizer costs, other input costs, whether you can get parts for machinery, if you want to even get machinery. Labor is going to be a continued issue on the farm, and I think short term, figure out, okay, we have to pay more for labor, and in the long term, people are going to have to figure it out, okay, are we going to find labor or do we have to invest in technology to keep our operations going,” Lyon added.

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