Dairy Defined

Catastrophically low milk prices may decline further in May and June, making all-hands-on-deck efforts to find solutions for all dairy producers necessary, Peter Vitaliano, chief economist for the National Milk Producers Federation, says in a new NMPF podcast.

Congress’s move to replenish two coronavirus-related assistance programs that are available to dairy businesses may help keep some dairies afloat – but application windows may close fast, said Claudia Larson, government relations director at the National Milk Producers Federation.

Congress’s latest $484 billion coronavirus aid package replenishes two new small business loan programs that were overwhelmed by demand when first offered – the Paycheck Protection Program, which allows qualified banks to offer low-interest loans that can later be forgiven, and Economic Injury Disaster Loans, a parallel program operated by the Small Business Administration. 

Even U.S. dairy struggles to meet the immediate challenges of coronavirus, its work on expanding overseas markets continues “not with an eye on what’s going to happen necessarily in the next week, but what needs to happen over the next year or two” to help the industry recover, said Shawna Morris, vice president for trade at the National Milk Producers Federation.

More than four decades of dairy-industry experience with bovine coronavirus shouldn’t translate to complacency on farms about the human version, says Mike Lormore, the Director of U.S. Dairy Cattle Technical Services for Zoetis, the world’s largest manufacturer of animal-health vaccines, in an NMPF podcast released today.

Jaime Castaneda, senior vice president for policy, strategy and international trade at the National Milk Producers Federation, says the coronavirus crisis carries an urgency for the federal government comparable to world-shaping events such as World War II and the Great Depression. And as policy leaders work to rise to the occasion, the dairy community needs to as well, he said.

National Milk Producers Federation Chief Economist Peter Vitaliano says government support for dairy producers to reduce production in coming months can speed dairy’s recovery from coronavirus-driven price declines. Production balancing is part of the NMPF and International Dairy Foods Association plan for dairy assistance presented to the U.S. Department of Agriculture last week.

Clay Detlefsen, senior vice president of regulatory and environmental affairs for the National Milk Producers Federation and the private-sector chair of the Food and Agricultural Sector Coordinating Council – says that while shortages of grocery staples have eased in the U.S., shortages of personal protective equipment may linger into June – and that even after the coronavirus threat has ebbed, the era of masks and gloves for food-sector workers may be here to stay.

NMPF Chief Economist Peter Vitaliano says current coronavirus-created gloom over dairy prices as expressed in futures markets may turn out be overstated in the end, but that the pain felt by producers over the next few months will be real, as lower prices make their way into milk checks paid to farmers for their milk.

Chris Galen, senior vice president for membership services and strategic initiatives at the National Milk Producers Federation, says dairy farmers need effective policy advocacy in Washington as the economic effects of coronavirus are dealt with for months, in both anticipated and unanticipated ways.

NMPF Chief Economist Peter Vitaliano discusses the challenges dairy farmers will face as supply chains adjust to coronavirus-related disruptions in an interview for a television news package on dairy that RFD-TV is producing to air next week. RFD provided NMPF with the full interview, in which Vitaliano explains how sold-out dairy cases and lower milk prices can exist at the same time and how various federal assistance proposals could work economically.