Pocono News Section

Future Murky for Pennsylvania Dairy Farmers

Future Murky for Pennsylvania Dairy Farmers - Monday, December 28, 2009 at 5:05PM EST

Reported by: Jeremy Deebel
Monday, Dec 28, 2009 @ 05:05pm EST
Cogan Station, Lycoming County-

2009 was one of the worst years in history for Pennsylvania dairy farmers. It's all because of record-low milk prices. The question now becomes, what does the future hold?

At the Ulmer Dairy Farm near Cogan Station, Charles Ulmer feels the sting of the lowest milk prices in three decades.

He noted, "The past year we averaged between $11 and $12 per hundred. That's below what you can make a profit (on)."

That's a drop of more than $10 per hundred pounds of milk compared to the $23 average of 2008.

Making matters worse, production costs for things like feed and fertilizer rose to record highs this year.

And the outlook for the future is murky.

Milk prices are expected to rise to a $16-$18 average in 2010. That's better, but not great, and won't fix a lingering problem.

Ulmer explained, "There are a lot of dairy farmers that lost so much equity over the last downturn that it's going to take more than that to bring it back."

Charles Ulmer sees milk prices continuing to fluctuate in the future, because no control has been put in place to regulate them.

Ulmer expects that some struggling dairy farmers will sell out, thereby reducing production and, hopefully, leveling off prices in a range viable for the farmers left standing.

He added, "You don't want to see it and you don't want to do it yourself, but that's one way to correct it and I expect some of that will happen."

For Ulmer and many dairy farmers like him, the future remains very much a question mark.

Ulmer said, "It's an industry that if you don't like it, you better get out. Because it's something you've got to love to do to do it, which I do."

Government oversight of milk pricing was supposed to be part of the 2002 Farm Bill. But according to most farmers, not enough money was appropriated.