Aug. 18 2021
The author owns The McCully Group LLC, which provides management consulting for dairy and food companies.For the last two months, dairy markets have been in the summer price doldrums, bogged down by heavy...
July 2 2021
As recovery from the pandemic continues, it may be years before we understand all of the consumption and production implications
June 9 2021
The average cost to produce milk has climbed substantially so far this year. In our conversations, we have been hard-pressed to find anything — services or products — that are cheaper this...
May 5 2021
However, why we have federal programs to subsidize food consumption is not always clear, especially when we contrast the perspectives of people whose primary interest is agriculture versus people whose...
April 25 2021
The coronavirus pandemic was an outlier event that dramatically shocked the supply and demand fundamentals of all commodity markets. Milk was no exception
April 10 2021
Dairy markets have a new driver at the wheel: demand. Before 2020, dairy markets hinged mainly on the dynamics of milk supply
March 9 2021
A year has passed since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down our nation and our economy. Our lives have been shattered by countless losses and our industry has been put to the ultimate test
Feb. 10 2021
Farmers added 93,000 milk cows to the herd between June and December. This is the fastest six-month expansion in more than 22 years
Dec. 29 2020
With 2020 in dairy’s rearview mirror, it’s time to focus on 2021. Even with the new year upon us, 2020 will cast a long shadow
Dec. 4 2020
There is no question that dairy prices have recently walked through levels of uncertainty never realized or equaled in our lifetime. On a month-to-month basis, Class III prices routinely swung $5 per
Nov. 6 2020
For extreme diseases, wrote the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, extreme methods of cure are most suitable. Faced with a virus that forced the U.S. economy into a lockdown, the federal government
Oct. 25 2020
As the industry looks ahead to 2021, milk price outlook remains uncertain as factors weigh on markets that could lift or depress milk prices
Oct. 10 2020
Dairy producers can count on only one thing over the next 12 months: volatility. This past spring and summer, market behavior embodied a wide range of emotions from panic lows to euphoric highs
Sept. 25 2020
The world looks dramatically different for South America’s dairy producers today than it did just one year ago
Sept. 10 2020
In early human history, maps used to show the boundaries of the known world. Beyond those boundaries, there would often be the words “Here be dragons” to indicate potential dangers
Aug. 25 2020
it is no secret that U.S. dairy farmers have faced a great deal of milk price volatility in the past couple of decades
Aug. 10 2020
The global health pandemic has created never-before-seen changes to dairy markets. Let’s discuss these developments . . . through the lens of a psychological bias that has been particularly troublesome
July 15 2020
After four-plus years of being in the doldrums, milk prices finally started to pick up in the second half of 2019
June 1 2020
The coronavirus pandemic is a once in a generation event that has wreaked havoc on the dairy market. Prices have collapsed, supply chains are damaged, and milk dumping has tragically become widespread
May 25 2020
Dairy markets have taken a tumble with the restrictions associated with the novel coronavirus. Milk usage has changed due to severe limitations on dining out