Excess Production Leads to Spilt Milk

Within weeks of a US Department of Agriculture (USDA) report announcing record net income for agriculture cooperatives, including Kansas City’s Dairy Farmers of America, The Wall Street Journal is reporting a “massive glut” in excess milk that has filled warehouses with cheese and seen farmers dumping tens of millions of gallons of milk in fields, manure lagoons and animal feed.

Additional milk was either lost on truck routes or discarded at plants for a total in excess of 43 million gallons. The Wall Street Journal reports that amount as enough to fill 66 Olympic swimming pools and the most milk wasted in the 16 years of data they requested from USDA.

The report attributes the current glut, in part, to producers expanding their operations two years ago in response to a shortage.