Butter $hortage

[k-289]

Headliner  on  this  morning  tv  news ,  stating  the  marketing , of  super  market  butter  pricing  ===

All  along  we  were  told  about  the  larger  operations  , do  it cheaper ,  business  model  ?  ?  NOW  the  excuses  pour  in  of  why  they  can't  -  interesting  - ?  ?    

[rayjenkins]

good article in WSJ about butter and the causes for the shortage......it boils down to the fact that butter is the "residual supplier" of dairy products......fluid milk first, then cheese, and if there is excess product left, it gets made into butter..

but that requires running additional shifts in afternoon/evening and those are hard to fill in current labor situation

and so it goes

[bruce MN]

Where is there left someplace of consequence in that industry that performs those  3 processes in the same facility or on the same campus.

I hauled bulk milk for 2 years in the summer and then on weekends while in college in 1968 and 69 and the milk went to 3 different towns for them.

Maybe there is somewhere….just curious.  Milk doesn’t just appear. I’d think that Processors have a good reliable handle on what’s in the pipeline,

[k-289]

Larson   door being  an  example  of  why  there  is  a  stable labor  shortage  -  RETENTION - both   of  stable  work  establishments ,  with  buy-outs  ,  then  shuttering ,  so  upper  level  management  can  regroup  -  recoup  - restructure  the  metamorphosis  = = =

CHEAP'r  seems  to  lost  it'$  luster  -  or  has  a  devalued , disparage  meaning  =  =  =            

[rickgthf]

Is there any reason to believe milk production won't be as much or more than last year?  No butter shortage then. We're short 60,000 cows, 0.6%, maximum, so where's the milk?  Third shift or not, that milk didn't just disappear.

[BA Deere]

Exports?

https://www.thelandonline.com/news/mielke-market-weekly-u-s-dairy-exports-continue-to-look-healthy/a...   

snip:

Meanwhile, July U.S. dairy exports continued to impress. HighGround Dairy’s Lucas Fuess reported details in the Sept. 12 “Dairy Radio Now” broadcast.

Butter exports saw the biggest gain, up 77.7 percent from July 2021. Volume only totaled 13.4 million pounds, small compared to domestic usage, Fuess said, but impressive nonetheless. The July total was the highest since March and the largest July shipments since 2013. Top destinations included Canada, Bahrain, and South Korea. Butter exports are up 31.7 percent year-to-date.

[k-289]

Butter  out  put  down  2%  ,  while  retail  pricing  structure  is  up  35%  ,   has  a  3  day  old  fish  aroma = = =   

[BA Deere]

I wonder if demand for real butter hasn`t increased with the move away from the health destroying margarines?   I personally use very little butter, only to make grill cheese sammys .   I only drink skim milk (Dad used to call it separator water) .  The only dairy I like is cheese, I like ice cream but ice cream doesn`t like me 🙂  so, I`m out of the loop on the dairy consumption end of it.  

These dairies are huge anymore, I go into the Bluff country in SE Minnesota and 2,000 cows is small.  At $21 milk, I sure don`t think the farmers are getting some kind of ill-gotten gains.  It`s the processors and grocery stores making the money.   

I know with eggs, my Mom used to sell eggs for 30¢/doz up to Albert Lea and the folks would do grocery shopping up there and they came back with a couple dozen eggs in their grocery bags.  I said to Dad, "Didn`t you guys go to Albert Lea to SELL eggs???"  Dad said, "Yeah, but they were 20¢ at the grocery store!"  😀   You could`ve bought eggs at the grocery for 20¢ and drove a mile and sold `em at the egg buyin` place for 30¢.  Obviously the grocery store was using eggs as a "loss leader" to get you in the store and you`d hopefully buy overpriced soda and cookies.  And I wonder if butter hasn`t been a "loss leader", but now those days are coming to a end?

[k-289]

Interesting  deal  would  be  the  price  structure  in  1  of  those  importing  destinations ,  $7  / lb. or   $10 + ?  ?  ? 

Exporting  perishable  products  being  a  cumbersome  process ,  at  best , as  I  can  only  imagine  that  tracker  on  the  refridgerated  can- tainer ,   comingled  with  10,000  other  boxes ,  then ,  waiting  to  dock   === 

The  process  reminds  me  of  binder - shocks -  hayrack -  thrash machine - 80bu. wagon - scoop  shovel into the bin - oats  soaking wood barrel  to  awaiting  sows  = = =

B A  -  tks  for  the interesting  article  = = =  

[lsc76cat]

Spent the first 5 years of my life on a farm couple miles south of the Moland Creamery.

Moland is in an area settled by many Norwegian immigrants in Steele County, MN.

Lots of small creameries around back then when so many farmers had milk cows.

My dad saved a book about all the creameries in Steele County and it talked about the butter contests that took place amongst them and other creameries in the area.  Quite a source of pride.  For Moland's annual meeting they would make oyster stew and serve it out of the cream cans.  I can still remember the smell = it was wonderful😊😋