When stay-at-home orders were first enacted back in March, it meant places like schools and restaurants were also forced to close in-house operations. This caused the dairy industry to redirect their product market to try and reduce financial loss. In cases where this was not successful, milk dumping often occured.
Karianne Fallow, the CEO of Dairy West said the Utah dairy industry was able to remain stable throughout these hardships. And while milk dumping happened in across the country, many Utah milk producers were able to avoid this through creative solutions.
“I would give credit to the farmers to families food box program launched by the USDA, and the Curds and Kindness program. When we can move products on market, that is a way to keep milk prices up or stable,” said Fallow.
Fallow added that dairy farmers are resilient and optimistic people.
“We do have a number of farmers who are also using this time to reinvest in their business so that they can prepare for the future,” said Falllow.
Now that restaurants and schools have been moving back towards more in- person interactions, the market has been able to open up more.
“It's closer to normal, retail sales are up. They've been relatively strong throughout this. And so that has afforded, if you will, a place for the product to go,” said Fallow.
