Wisconsin dairy farmer Charlie Jones says milk prices have fallen by 30 percent this year, putting farmers like him in a bind. “Treading water would be a good term to describe it,” he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The newspaper says, “Much of the United States now has too much milk, partly from dairy farms expanding their herds during the high prices in 2014.” Joel Greeno said he quit dairying because he was making little money from milk while costs kept going up. “Buffalo County dairy farmer Jim Rosenow says his farm income is down about $400,000 so far this year, with most of the decline from lower milk prices.” Rosenow milks 550 cows.
Dairy economists expect milk prices to decline further this year in the face of larger production overseas and smaller U.S dairy exports. Milk production is expanding in Europe. Some farmers are converting to organic milk, which fetches a higher price. The Journal Sentinel says the number of farms in Wisconsin, the No. 2 dairy state, fell below 10,000 earlier this year, the lowest total in more than a century.