M-o-o-o-ving Up: Higher Demand, Expenses, Push Up Cost Of Milk
US - The price of milk may be at near-record highs but Ed Brunton, of Brunton Dairy in Beaver County, figures he was making more money four years ago
19 July 2007
1 minute read
There's the high fuel rates, the cost of milk bottles and don't even mention the price of filling 104 hungry bovine mouths. "Feed has gone through the roof," he said.
The story in the milk aisle lately -- and at the ice cream shop and most places using dairy products -- has been one of global economic forces at work. "It's called supply and demand," said Ken Bailey, associate professor of dairy markets and policy at Penn State University.
Droughts in the milk-producing countries of Australia and New Zealand, a growing appetite in China for dairy products, not to mention Americans' love affair with cheese, fed the increased demand for U.S. dairy products. At the same time, producing milk became more expensive as grains used to feed cattle shifted to use in biofuels.
Source: post-gazette.com
