By BOB TOMASZEWSKI
STAFF WRITER
Dairy farmers are expecting to dump milk during what normally is usually one of their busiest seasons. But due to school not being in session and restaurants being closed, demand for milk has fallen sharply.
New Bremen dairy farmer Lou Brown said this week nationally 1,000 semi-loads of milk have been dumped, which he had heard from the National Dairy Producers Association.
“I’ve never seen anything this serious,” Brown said.
He said Gottemoeller and Browering Farms in Mercer County have had to dump milk as well as five farms in Darke County. Brown works with Brewster Cheese, which was still accepting loads of milk for the time being.
Beef prices have also declined. Steer meat was $1.19 a pound and is now closer to 86 cents. Milk is currently priced at $12 per 100 pounds; normal price is $18.00
Brown said he would be able to withstand low prices for a month or two, but not a whole year.
Both the Ohio Dairy Producers Association and national association have forecasted low prices for the next eight to nine months.
Brown said if trade restrictions were eased they might be able to ship more cheese to Canada and Mexico. Brown said the WIC program has allowed its members to buy 2 percent milk instead of just one percent milk, which has helped.
In response to the coronavirus crisis, Brown said he has limited the number of people working on his farm. He said the milk trucks at the only vehicles that need to come and go. He said they have also taken precautions to sanitize and wipe equipment down. Meetings are being held by phone.
Ohio State University Economist Ben Brown explained that corn and hog markets have also been impacted. Brown said the demand for gasoline has decreased; so has the demand for corn to make ethanol. He said grains have been cushioned as there is still a demand for feed. Since Jan. 21, the date of the first reported coronavirus case in the U.S., corn prices declined 15 percent, soybean prices went down 7 percent, and wheat decreased 6 percent.
Brown said the hog market has been impacted, as less meat is being processed as plants scale back hours to allow for more cleaning and sanitizing.