The math on the semi trailer found in paragraph three was updated on June 22
Dairy plants in some parts of the Northeast and Midwest have resorted to "dumping milk" either due to oversupply from dairy farms or limited plant capacity. In some parts of the country, the actual pounds of "dumped" milk can be quantified more easily.
For the month of April 2016, 22.6 million pounds of milk fell into the Class IV usage category "animal feed and dumpage" in the Northeast Federal Milk Market Order.
How many tankers would that represent?
If a semi-tanker that weighs 30,000 pounds were filled with an additional 50,000 pounds of milk, that would represent 452 loads of milk.
The amount of milk being sent to animal feed can be more easily tracked in the Northeast Order because much of the milk is still running through plants. With the high value for butterfat, the milk is still being picked up by processors and delivered to plants where the cream is processed and removed. The residual skim milk is then "dumped" due to lack of plant processing capacity. In most cases, this milk is destined for animal feed.
While this situation has been going on for some time, April's 22.6 million-pound figure represents a significant jump. In March 2016, only 5.9 million pounds fell into this category. In April 2015, there was just 5.4 million pounds.
While numbers in the Northeast are more easily documented, the situation also has been occurring in the Midwest. However, Federal Milk Market Order rules in that region do not track the number. That is because "dumped" milk for animal feed doesn't really qualify for pool-based pricing.
Word in the Midwest countryside is that some plants and co-ops are sending excess milk straight to veal and calf growers. While the situation exists in many parts of the Midwest, more frequent reports on diverted milk have been coming from Wisconsin.
(c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2016
May 30, 2016
