When we posted our story today about dairy farmers across America starting to be forced to dump their milk hauls, many called us “Fake News”, but it’s really happening and this week, dairy blogger Carrie Mess of “Dairy Carrie” explained exactly what is happening to the dairy industry.
Check out her full post here if you don’t want the recap.
“We are holding our breath waiting for the call that others have received telling them that the milk their farm produces doesn’t have a home and has to be dumped,” she wrote. “If and how they will be paid still seems unclear.”
This comes after several dairies posted videos to social media of their workers dumping tons of milk from their shipping trailers.
How can that be? Many stores across America have empty shelves where gallons of milk once were. If you think about what really happens to milk once it’s taken from the cows on the farms and sent to factories for processing it all makes sense.
Mess claims 7% of all milk supplies go directly to schools across America…schools that are now closed. Another large portion goes to the restaurant industry in the form of cheese and sour cream. With most of the Mexican and Italian restaurants operating far below their normal capacity, there’s another big hit in on the milk industry.
“When a restaurant orders their sour cream, they order it pounds. When we buy sour cream at the store, we buy it by the tub. The sour cream plant has separate manufacturing lines for bulk and for tubs,” she said. “With the pandemic suddenly there is very little call for bulk sour cream, they can’t keep tubs in stock at your local grocery store.”
There’s much more to learn about why this is happening, if you wish to learn more, visit the Dairy Carrie blog.