Idaho | Milk flowing in Idaho

Dairy farmers in Idaho have been cranking up milk production all year, posting some whopping monthly increases in year-over year production.

Production was up 5.1% in January, 9.7% in February, 6.7% in March and 5.7% in April. May through October, production increases ranged from a high of 3.9% to a low of 2.6%.

Idaho’s had pretty steady increases year over year all year and has produced about 2 million more pounds of milk a day than 2019, said Rick Naerebout, CEO of Idaho Dairymen’s Association.

The state is pretty long in milk, averaging a 4.5% increase year over year. It’s a lot of milk, he said.

“Part of it is the overall financial health of the industry,” he said.

The pandemic did disrupt markets but they recovered very nicely, and Idaho probably benefitted more from the recovery than a lot of other states, he said.

“Idaho has really benefitted from the overall cheese price in 2020,” he said.

Roughly 60% of Idaho’s milk goes to making cheese, he said.

“Going into 2020, we thought it was going to be a good year. Then COVID turned everything on its ear,” he said.

Cheese prices collapsed in March and April with foodservice shutdowns, and it looked like the year was going to turn into a train wreck. But cheese prices were record high by July, due largely to government-funded food boxes for feeding programs, he said.

But cheese prices have come down more than $1 a pound in the last two weeks, and 2021 looks like it’s going to be an average year, he said.

Milk checks in October were in the $23-a-hundredweight range. In November, there will likely be a hard drop off to $16 — which is in the ballpark with cost of production. They’re likely to be lower than $16 going forward, he said.

Idaho’s milk production in October was up 2.7% year over year on 14,000 additional cows and an additional 10 pounds of milk per cow, according to USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service.

On another note, Naerebout doesn’t know of any milk being dumped in Idaho — as was anecdotally reported to Dairy Market Analyst.

He’s talked to a few milk handlers but hasn’t been able to verify any dumping, he said.

Matt Gould, analyst and editor of Dairy Market Analyst, has not yet responded to a request for comment.

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Topics |
Idaho, Milk

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