As Governor Kristi Noem’s family continues to seek more government teats to suckle, Minnesota sends another signal that the milk market may not support the factory dairy for which Noem’s brothers Rock and Robb Arnold would sell their family’s land. The market can’t support the dairies it already has, and producers are leaving the field:
Minnesota lost 58 dairy farm permits in November, a devastating blow to a farm sector already drained by contraction.
“We have some seasonality to this. In October, November and December, you’ll always see some herds go,” Lucas Sjostrom, executive director of the Minnesota Milk Producers Association, said. “But I have not seen [a monthly declines in permits] over 50 for a long time.”
…But Sjostrom says last month’s numbers underscore the razor-thin financial margins for dairy farmers under a crush of economic pressures, such as high input costs and low commodity values, just a year after dairy enjoyed higher prices for milk, cheese and butter in the aftermath of the pandemic.
…In sum, Minnesota has 146 fewer dairy farmer permits this Christmas than the state did at the beginning of the year, according to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture [Christopher Vondracek, “Dozens of Minnesota Dairy Farms Folded in November, Alarming Farm Advocates,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 2023.12.26].
The only way a new mega-dairy in Hamlin County makes sense is if Noem–Arnold pal Riverview Dairy, a Minnesota company that surely recognizes market realities, is planning to drive other, probably smaller, operations out of the market. So if the state subsidizes the Noem–Arnold-Riverview plan, it will be spending tax dollars to put existing dairy producers out of business.
Our farm near Elkton, South Dakota had Big Sioux River tributary Medary Creek flowing through it and we thought nothing of swimming in that goo loaded with manure, DDT and atrazine. Dad would even pump water from a flooding Medary Creek into our cistern for taking baths and watering the garden. Recall that back in 2018 South Dakota State University President Barry Dunn said the chemical toilet that is my home state should simply accept that fact because of more confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). The Mississippi is the third most polluted waterway in the United States and five of the tributaries of the Minnesota and Mississippi River system rise in South Dakota where Big Stone Lake is filling with silt.
Today, every body of water in eastern South Dakota is a Zhit hole because Republican is just another name for Earth hater.
Just as an FYI:
Valley Queen Cheese in Milbank is in the middle of an expansion project that is supposed to handle an additional 3 million pounds of milk every day. Supposed to be complete by Jan of 2025. If my math is correct, that is somewhere between 40 and 50 additional semi loads of milk per day.
Here is article that announced the project in 2022: https://www.siouxfalls.business/valley-queen-cheese-announces-largest-expansion-in-its-history/
Thanks, Brian! Does that represent an opportunity for new producers, or is that just enough capacity to keep existing producers from going under?
Capitalist markets drive dollars toward lowest cost production and a few winners and many more losers. Doesnt matter what you think it looks and feels like in its various states and what side of the equation you percieve yourself to be on at particular moments, it is grinding its way toward those end states. Period.
Clearly the Arnold family is maneuvering to stay on the above water portion of this market that is grinding away the smaller market players, certainly in more expensive Minnesota.
GoP all for states rights when they can exploit various tax structures to fatten their wallets. Maybe Minnesota should chase after these Dairy operators moving across state lines to circumvent their tax laws.
Of course that is absurd.. almost as absurd as chasing after healthcare seekers looking for more favorable laws to support their life goals.
So explain again how Arnold’s dairy operation in South Dakota is any different than an Abortion provider in Minnesota? Legally speaking? Would I not be in legal jeapordy if I did business in Minnesota and refused to honor their Tax Laws?
(Fill in here with Mike Z’s voracious defense of States Rights from any of his earlier comments)
What is the outlook on the dairy industry?
Milk production is projected to rise at a compound annual growth rate of 1.1% over the next 10 years, reaching 248 billion pounds in 2030. With slow growth in domestic demand as the economy recovers from the pandemic, the dairy herd will remain relatively flat in the middle of the decade but grow in the latter years.
Go big or go home. It’s a shame. We learned nothing from covid where too few meat packers or medicine makers put us in a bind.
e platypus onion
“Milk production is projected to rise at a compound annual growth rate of 1.1% over the next 10 years, reaching 248 billion pounds in 2030. With slow growth in domestic demand as the economy recovers from the pandemic, the dairy herd will remain relatively flat in the middle of the decade but grow in the latter years. In 2030, milk cows are projected to number 9.43 million head. Economies of scale trends are expected to continue, leading to further farm consolidation. Technological and genetic developments will contribute to increasing yields. In 2030, milk production per cow is projected to average 26,295 pounds.”
https://dairy.osu.edu/newsletter/buckeye-dairy-news/volume-23-issue-2/usda-projects-dairy-production-2030
Re: Brian and Cory’s earlier comments
I, too, wonder how the Valley Queen expansion bodes for the dairy industry in both Grant County and the surrounding region? Recall that in 2016 Grant County voters approved a more stringent CAFO ordinance, requiring lengthier setbacks, among other things:
https://dakotafreepress.com/2016/06/10/grant-county-rejects-mickelson-cafo-mania-adopts-longer-setbacks-for-big-livestock-operations/
Being fairly new to the area at that time, I wasn’t tuned into the mood of the voters with respect to that issue–but was shocked that a more restrictive ordinance was approved, particularly given Valley Queen’s large economic and employment footprint. I remember hearing that a not insignificant portion of locals, including many Valley Queen employees, were rankled by the dairy magnate’s turning away from traditional smaller dairies in favor of the factory farm model. Although I didn’t hear it firsthand, I was told that in the recent past Valley Queen had discontinued milk pickup from numerous smaller dairies that didn’t produce a full tanker truck per run–a decision that was a death knell for many of those operations.
Did the lingering animosity toward that decision by Valley Queen poison the pool for continued mega-dairy development in the county? And if so, will those factory farms be sited in other CAFO-friendlier counties nearby? From what I can tell, small dairies in the area have gone the way of the dodo and won’t be resurrected by the Valley Queen expansion. Riverview is on the march like Nazi Stormtroopers rampaging through Poland–look no further than their facility that dwarfs the nearby town of Veblen for a depressing glimpse into the future of dairy. Regardless, with Farm Welfare Barbie and her pawns in favor of condemning eastern SD to death by industrial agriculture, the future is bleak unless you’re an Arnold or hypocritical schmuck of similar ilk.
I suppose that pesky climate change that I keep hearing about, will have nothing to do with milk production….methinks it shall. Soy anyone?