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Why we need new ways to eat cheese
By Darren Turley, executive director
Did you enjoy the Super Bowl? How many chicken wings did you eat? The National Chicken Council estimated that 1.42 billion would be consumed. Now what if for next year’s game, those wings were dipped in melted cheese or covered in various cheese flavors? It’s just one new use for dairy we may see as the dairy industry looks for new ways for consumers to enjoy their products.
New uses for cheese is one solution during what is an unusual time for dairy product pricing. This year we are expecting to see Class IV milk powder prices rise above Class III cheese prices for the first time since 2013. This unusual pricing situation can drastically impact – for better or worse – the milk checks that are sent dairy farmers across the country, depending on which product is produced more in their state.
In Texas, dairy producers could possibly see up to a 35 cent-increase per hundred weight of product in their paychecks because of the increase in milk powder production in the state, due to new milk powder processing plants built in Texas in recent years. Texas exports a lot of milk powder now, and that is expected to grow in the future.
What has caused this unusual pricing scenario? Reasons include changes in consumer consumption of dairy products and dairy product trends.
This rapid increase in Class IV milk powder pricing is a main factor leading the U.S. Department of Agriculture, USDA, to consider reforming the federal milk pricing system. The decades-old pricing formulas are not particularly responsive to some of these trends and the changes in various state’s dairy markets. It is unsure if the USDA will take on the very complicated task of milk pricing and the disparity between milk producers and milk processors.
The cheese market is looking for fresh ideas for consumers to enjoy their product (such as those cheese-dipped wings I mentioned). That, too, would help stabilize the future impact on the market and on producers’ milk checks.
So will the expected increase in dairy exports. Exports are expected to increase from one in every six milk tankers, to one in every five in the next few years. As Texas dairy producers continue to feed the world, we must continue to search for new uses for our products both local and abroad.
By the time you read this, the NFL season is over. A winner has been crowned, and millions of wings have been eaten, hopefully with cheese or at least with a glass or milk to calm the seasoning burn. As tough as football is, I enjoyed hearing the football icon John Madden discuss his visit with a dairy farmer, in the “All Madden” documentary that aired over Christmas. Madden noted that dairy cows must be milked twice a day, every day, and expressed his respect for how tough the career of a dairy farmer is.
The dairy industry is tough, and I think that is a great quality about our producers and the industry. It never rests, and it never slows down. The Texas dairy industry scored a touchdown by recently becoming the fourth largest dairy producing state in the country, and I have no doubt we will score again by becoming the third largest state in a few more years.