Dairy Farmers Dumping Unsold Milk As Demand Plummets
HALIFAX – A sharp decline in demand for dairy products is forcing Nova Scotia farmers to dump milk they have no way to sell.
The problem, says Brian Cameron, stems from the mass closures of restaurants and hotels in the province in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cameron is the general manager of the Dairy Farmers of Nova Scotia, the organization that represents the province’s 200+ dairy farmers. He says Nova Scotia’s dairy market is still adjusting to the rapid disappearance of all the foodservice businesses that were such significant buyers.
According to a DFNS newsletter, demand for milk products actually spiked in March “as consumers stocked up to be able to stay home as advised by public health authorities.”
But as restaurants and hotels shut down and scaled back operations that trend quickly changed. Demand has since dropped sharply, and the market remains in turmoil as retailers and processors try and figure out how much milk will sell.
“These are difficult times for all Canadians, and dairy farmers too. Unfortunately, the marketplace variability and resulting milk orders from processors are difficult to anticipate,” Cameron explains.
The dairy industry’s supply management system means Nova Scotia dairy farmers must sell all the raw milk they produce to the DFNS, who then sells it to the processors that turn that raw product into the milk and cheese people eat.
With those processors buying less raw milk, the DFNS board on April 1 lowered every farmer’s quota by three percent.
But since dairy cows need to be milked regularly, many farmers were left with extra raw milk. Without a way to process or sell that raw milk many farmers simply dumped it.
“We have plenty of cow’s milk available, but the usual orders are down so we are having to dispose of some,” Cameron says. “This is a very difficult reality for those who care for and milk cows for a living only to see it going down the drain.”
In an effort to drive more demand for dairy, the DFNS recently gave $20,000 to Feed Nova Scotia to help it buy and ship more dairy products. The organization’s newsletter also said the DFNS hopes to partner with dairy processors to make more donations in the future.
Those donations are unlikely to move the market in big ways, so Cameron says dairy farmers will have to find ways to slow down their milk production.
He says they can do things like “drying off” some cows so they stop producing milk earlier than they normally would or milking their cows fewer times each day.
Farmers can also reduce the size of their herds, something he said is an “ongoing process as cows reach the end of their productive time in the herd.”
Cameron says it’s “impossible” to know if or when the province’s dairy market will settle down. That makes it hard for the DFNS to say how quotas might have to be adjusted in the future.
“Looking back at the last four weeks, no one could have predicted the daily changes we have faced, how long this will last, nor the changes in demand,” he said.
Something like Easter weekend, for example, is usually a very big draw for milk and dairy products. But Cameron says it’s hard to anticipate what family meals will look like this Easter with rules in place around gathering sizes.
“It’s impossible to know how soon things will get back to normal, or what the new normal will look like,” he says. All the DFNS can do is constantly monitor milk orders and production levels and adjust quotas to match the circumstances.