Milk prices rise to record highs

AP on Yahoo ^ | 8/10/07 | Emma Vandore - ap

[TChris]

I love how breathless the news is that the laws of economics still apply.

Wow.

[ex-snook]

Inflation? what inflation - just because everything a family needs is going up doesn’t mean there is inflation. Inflation is under control, is under control, is under control. OK I got it.

[Red Badger]

DAMNED ETHANOL!................

[Smokin' Joe]

It is an international conspiracy by BIG MILK! They won't grow enough cows so milk is cheap! The GOVERNMENT should TAKE OVER the EVIL BIG MILK COMPANIES so the consumer isn't getting RIPPED OFF!

Need I go on?

Oh, /SARC.

[P-40]

A problem easily solved. :)

[NormsRevenge]

Hemp nuts? huh? wow.

[P-40]

I’m going to try it one of these days just to see what it is like. I’ve heard it is actually pretty good...but that review might have come from Willie Nelson. :)

[Red Badger]

I knew some hemp nuts........

[Uncle Hal]

Milk to me is like gasoline. I have to have it so the price is something I never look at.

[ken21]

ethanol is the primary reason,

the secondary, australia and new zealand, also mentioned.

but when it’s all said and done, there’s not that much profit for the small dairies. in fact, they go broke all the time.

milk producers of volume with 5,000-10,000 cows do ok.

the profit is in the processing, distribution, and most especially in the value-added food producers such as dean foods, cargill, adm, kraft, etc.

[BBell]

hemp makes me nuts.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Premier Wen Jiabao, at a visit to a cow factory last year

They're making cows too?

[rabscuttle385]

Inflation? what inflation - just because everything a family needs is going up doesn’t mean there is inflation. Inflation is under control, is under control, is under control.

Baghdad Bob, is that you?

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Hempmilk

Great, I can get high and damage my teeth on a bowl of Captain Crunch at the same time.

[philled]

It's cheaper than oil

Hmmm, that may be the case in France but what about the USA?

Oil is approximately $1.70 a gallon (NYMX $71.47 a barrel divided by 42 [gallons]) while this weeks average price for a gallon of gasoline is $2.801 (AAA). The article cites milk at $3.80 per gallon in the USA. Oil is quite a bit cheaper. The real question is "How long until French peace activists start positioning themselves along the Wisconsin border chanting 'No blood for milk!!'

[trane250]

MAY 24, 2006 LOW PRICE IS BANKRUPTING DAIRY FARMERS – by Arden Tewksbury When dairy farmers opened their milk checks in late April, many were stunned to find out their advance check for the first 15 days of milk in April was worth only $1.11 per hundredweight (cwt), which is approximately 12 gallons of milk. Considering that the cost of production is between $13 per cwt and $17 per cwt, dairy farmers need a new pricing system. Warnings abounded that this price was coming, but it was hard for dairy farmers to accept the $11.11 as reality until they saw their checks. Unfortunately, some dairy farmers received only $10.68 per cwt. I called some milk handlers to see if they would raise the price to $12.00 to help out. Clearly, the whole pricing mechanism is a farce. It is a disgrace for dairy farmers to receive only $11.11. In February 1981, manufacturing milk was valued at $12.68 per cwt. That was 25 years ago!!! How can any official stand by and watch our dairy farmers be treated this way? Anyone who calls himself a dairy leader, whether he is in a co-op or farm organization, a member of Congress, a worker at the U.S. Department of Agriculture or an economist for any college or university, should hang his head for allowing this pricing mechanism to impose such hardships Surely, everyone must be more than aware of the continuing dramatic costs experienced by all dairy farmers. A dairy economist wrote recently that it was a mystery how cheese prices could increase a few cents a pound on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). I say, “It’s a complete mystery to me why we still price milk to dairy farmers the same old way.” Some say dairy farmers are producing too much milk, but many others would counter that if imports were curtailed, dairy farmers would see better prices. Some also say that fluid sales are flat. But please visit the dairy cases in your grocery stores. See how many rows and rows of “Coffee-Mate,” “International Delight,” and “Silk Milk” have invaded them. I visited the P&C store in Sayre, Pa. (Bradford County), and I was pleased to see how the manager, Lynelle, has the artificial dairy products separated from the real milk. Dairy farmers, please don’t let the politicians continue to tell you the best they can do is give you the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) payments! Please look at what Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Board (PMMB) is continuing to do for the Pennsylvania Class I milk that stays in the state. It currently has a $1.93 premium that goes to farmers to help alleviate their costs. If Pennsylvania can do this, then why not the U.S. Department of Agriculture? Isn’t it time to investigate the CME? Why should a few carloads of cheese establish the price of all milk in the United States? The time has arrived when dairy farmers must stand up and demand changes. Let’s curtail some of the dairy products coming into the United States. Let’s get the imported milk protein concentrate (MPC) out of our dairy products. Let’s make sure your advertising and promotion people are visiting stores to make the dairy case truly a dairy case. Finally, let’s bring the dairy farmers’ cost of production into the pricing formula. Then if there is too much milk, penalize the producers for 5 percent of the so-called “overproduction,” but let’s establish the right price on the other 95 percent of the milk. Many of the organizations that I have worked with over the years, like the National Family Farm Coalition and National Farmers Union, have developed workable dairy programs that would have returned a fair price to farmers, kept milk production in line with the real market, and would have kept dairy imports under control. In addition, these programs would not have cost U.S. taxpayers any money. We need to collaborate to enact a new dairy policy that is based on these workable dairy programs, not on short-term solutions that work against us. -- Arden Tewksbury from Meshoppen, Pa., is a dairy farmer and manager of Progressive Agriculture (PA), an organization representing 1,200 family dairy farmers. He wrote this for the National Family Farm Coalition.

[Freedom4US]

I live in Iowa. One thing I’ve noticed when travelling is that the milk doesn’t taste right, not sure why that is.
You’d like the whole milk around here. It is sweet, almost like ice cream. You’re right, it’s not that I don’t care what it costs, but I gotta have it. Anderson-Ericson Sour Cream is also excellent, they are a great company.

[Daffynition]

Coming to a WalMart near you.

[television is just wrong]

lol, is that for real?