The Cow Is Not Like a Switch

That’s a quote from dairy guru, and former cooperative extension agent in St. Lawrence County, Pete Barney. He told me that in one of my first interviews with him when I first moved to the North Country. It’s what sets dairying apart from most other industries.

You’ve got to milk the cows – twice, in some cases, three times a day. So the supply/demand feedback for milk and dairy products is very unresponsive. People decide they don’t want to drink as much milk as they used to? Still have to milk the cows.

The NYT reports today on a glut in the American milk supply. Turns out the boom years got folks (mostly out West) a little too bullish on dairy. They built vast dairies in California and New Mexico that dwarf the biggest farm here. And they established markets overseas in growing third/second world economies.

American dairy shipments soared to places like Algeria, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines. The biggest market, however, was Mexico, where imports from America increased to $853 million in 2007 from $258 million in 2003, according to the Agriculture Department. But now, global demand has stagnated amid high prices and economic uncertainty just as the dollar has strengthened and milk production in New Zealand and, to a lesser extent, Australia, has bounced back.

Meanwhile, American taxpayers are investing in milk powder to bail out the dairy farmers through our farm subsidies system (cheese may be next). And the cows still need to be milked.