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. 

A massive coronavirus aid package poised to pass Congress that includes crucial assistance to dairy producers is a critical, but likely not the last, step in assisting sectors hard-hit by economic disruptions, said Paul Bleiberg, NMPF’s vice president for government relations, in an NMPF podcast.

Emily Yeiser Stepp, a National Milk Producers Federation vice president and head of the National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) Program, is seeing rapid evolution in the initiative as the dairy industry continues to ensure quality animal care, a commitment to sustainability and best practices in the workplace even as coronavirus disrupts supply chains .