Low milk prices? We pay $5.49 a gallon for the pure stuff.
"Pure stuff"?
Milk around here is in the $2.50 a gallon neighborhood. (Wyoming/Colorado)
Organic Dairies will continue to make money. They are not tied into the government dairy plans. Some people like milk with out the puss.
My father in Law came from a dairy family. Back in the day you could make a living with 20 dairy cows, they all had pasture time and ate grass.
The Cooperatives Working Together herd retirement program is industry-funded and is designed to reduce milk production in the United States which would then improve prices. Under the program, dairymen submit a bid on the number of cows they want to retire. They are paid that amount based on the previous 12-months production of those cows, which are then sent to slaughter. The dairy producer also is paid the value of that cow that goes to slaughter.
As example, if a dairy has an average production of 20,000 pounds per cow, and the bid was accepted at $5 per 100-pounds, then he would be paid $1,000 per cow plus the value of that cow when it is sold at slaughter. Members of CWT pay the cooperative 10 cents per hundred pounds of milk produced, and the cooperative then decides whether to use that money in a herd retirement program or to use it for some other program, such as milk product export enhancement.