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Economists discuss dairy supply chain issues
Dairy economists are in Madison, Wisconsin for a conference that looks into supply and demand trends, and offers ideas that might reduce price volatility.
Economist Chuck Nicholson with the University of Wisconsin. He tells Brownfield the supply chain from farmer to consumer has changed a lot since the group last met in 2019, thanks to the pandemic, cattle genetics, and other factors. “We sure have. We have changes all the way from the farm level all the way through the supply chain and a number of questions this morning on the investments that co-ops are making into cheese plants in the southwestern United States, major changes, we have co-ops implementing plans to better manage and better balance the demand and supply in ways that we haven’t had before.”
And economists from around the world are explaining the changes they’ve seen. “We have perspectives from the UK, where they have had a very big transition away from a cooperative pricing model. We have a model from the European Union, from France and related experiences. We have folks who are going to talk about the pricing models that Dairy Australia has put in place.”
There will also be an explanation of the New Zealand dairy model and some cooperatives are here explaining how they manage milk supply to match their demand for cheese and butter. From the National Workshop for Dairy Economists and Policy Analysts,
