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Friday, April 03, 2020

Dairy Farmers Dumping Milk as Demand Vanishes

The economic dislocation caused by the coronavirus has caused shortages of some consumer staples and crashing demand for others.

Many Americans have seen the bare aisles in grocery stores where toilet paper and paper towels were once sold. Less visible is the over-supply of gasoline, oil, and now milk.

In Texas, oil storage is in short supply as demand for oil has crashed while supply has continued in climb. And in dairy country, milk is now being dumped because demand has dried up.

Many dairy processing plants across Wisconsin have more product than they can handle and that’s forced farmers to begin dumping their milk down the drain.

That’s the case at Golden E Dairy near West Bend. Farmer Ryan Elbe told WISN-TV they are dumping about 30,000 gallons (113,562 litres) a day.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Then why is it hit or miss finding milk at store.. haven't seen butter at ocean pines food lion either.

Anonymous said...

Make more cheese! The government can buy it and distribute it to food pantries and food banks. Or process it to be shelf stable.

Anonymous said...

Some of the huge purchasers of milk are school systems, including colleges. With those shut down, much of the demand disappears.

There are 74.2 million Kids under eighteen in the U.S. About 56.6 million students will attend elementary, middle, and high schools across the United States.