For the new year I have a small request. Could you please make a resolution to add more dairy to your diet? By simply adding more milk and dairy projects to your grocery cart it could help the dairy farmers across the country. If you see United Dairy products (this is where our milk goes) on the shelves I encourage you to buy that but any real dairy product will do.
Dairy farmers are in a unique situation where we don’t know what our farm’s milk income will be month to month and we actually learn what we get paid far after the milk has already been consumed, anywhere from 15 days up to a month and a half after it leaves our farm. This also means we learn of any pay cuts or deductions that the processor may make that late. Yesterday we received notice (the second time in 30 days) of another price decrease by our milk processor. The predicted trends of milk pricing for 2018 are low so by you adding more dairy to your diet and grocery cart you could be helping your own health as well as the well being of your neighboring farmer. Right now thousands of farmers across the country are fighting to keep their farm doors open and to continue to keep their family farm afloat. The upcoming year is not looking good for so many of us.
Add one more New Year’s Resolution to your list and buy and consume more dairy this year. I know our family will thank you. I actually think hundreds and thousands of farm families will thank you.
Leave a Reply