You know it’s a slack day when there is a rerun of three- or four-year-old news. I too get tired of listening to wannabe politicians saying that they could do a better job than the party in power yet have no alternative solution. Or watching TV where a country with one religion bombs and kills hundreds of citizens in a country with a different religion, and the next day it’s vice-versa, with millions of dollars’ worth of damage and thousands more citizens killed on the other side. Then there was either a wildfire, flood or hurricane doing billions of dollars’ worth of damage and killing more harmless people while too many people still don’t believe that there is any climate change!
But when I watched the late-night news on Saturday (Oct. 26), and saw a repeat of a dairy farmer opening the tap on his bulk tank and dumping the contents down the drain, I became quite upset. This happened three or four years ago at the beginning of the covid lockdown when everyone was advised to stay at home unless there was an emergency, or you had a very special job like a farmer, food truck driver, police, fireman, or a compulsory job in the health industry. People began working from home, if possible, and restaurant business dropped so low that many restaurants closed their door for good. Truck drivers couldn’t even use the bathroom in most restaurants because they only had takeout through a window in the wall.
Through previous years, the food industry had been fine-tuned to produce what the majority of people would buy. Restaurants bought coffee creamers for the coffee shops, schools bought big 20-litre bags of milk for refrigerated milk machines, and most coffee shops used 18 per cent cream for coffee. When people began eating at home instead of in restaurants, grocery stores ran out of litres and bags of milk because milk bottlers couldn’t switch from big 20-litre bags to litre jugs quick enough to supply the new way of selling milk. Also, families who eat at home don’t throw out half glasses of milk or don’t buy cream in those little coffee creamer containers. Hence, total milk consumption in the entire world dropped by about 10 per cent.
Farmers were geared up to produce the same amount of milk every day and cows are bred to calve at a one-year predetermined time to allow an even supply of milk (each farmer has a quota to supply daily). After a cow becomes pregnant, there is a nine-month gestation period until she calves and produces a large flow of milk. Farmers cannot turn milk production on and off like a light switch.
When covid started, it took milk bottling plants several weeks to acquire different-sized containers and maybe get some new bottlers to fill those different sized containers. There was too much milk in the system while farmers and bottlers adjusted to the new demands. Yes, there was too much milk for a week. In Canada where there was a milk quota system in place, rather than ask every dairy farmer to dump 10 per cent of milk produced, the milk board kept track of how much surplus milk was produced for the month and only a few large milk producers were asked to dump milk. At the end of the month, the milk board deducted a little from each milk shipper’s milk cheque based on the quota that farm owned. The milk board also made arrangements with butter and cheese plants to work extra hours to use some of that surplus milk rather than throw it out (both butter and cheese can be refrigerated and stored for many months). Countries without a supply management system could not move milk between different use milk plants like that. Because consumers eat more cheese, butter, and other fancy dairy products at holiday time, extra milk quota is given to dairy farmers for several months before the holiday season. Dairy farmers are notified months ahead of getting that extra quota so they can plan calvings and production for that period. Because these holidays happen every year, both the farmers and the milk boards know that these extra days of milk quota will come each year.
Dairy farmers also have a bit of flex in the quota produced. Each dairy farmer is allowed to under-produce or over-produce milk, but correct their production as soon as possible. Those who understand the quota system are continuously adjusting their breeding schedule, and how they feed. More roughage fed will result in higher milk fat percentage, while more grain or “non-structured” carbohydrates in the diet will increase total milk production and protein content.
As for the farmer that was upset on the TV news program, my second guess is that he may have depended on another family member (maybe his dad who may have died?) to plan the herd milk production a year or more ahead which would avoid dumping milk down the drain. The dairy farmer also has the option of buying or selling cows to balance milk production to suit their quota. Farmers also have the option of buying quota which is for sale every month on the quota exchange. Because a farmer can only buy a small percentage of their quota each month, they still must plan ahead to be ready for any increase in production.
In countries where a supply management system is not used to market milk, each farmer is on their own to find a milk bottling or manufacturing plant to buy their milk. If a milk plant suddenly quits, it is up to each milk producer to find a new buyer for their milk ASAP.
A few years ago, a very large cheese plant in Wisconsin suddenly closed its doors and a new cheese plant owned by a Canadian dairy farmer’s co-op saved the day for many of those dairy farmers when they put on an extra shift to process much of their milk.
No, Canada’s supply management system isn’t perfect, but it’s farmer owned and is constantly adjusting to better serve our clients (the consumers). Unlike our USA dairy farming neighbors, Canada’s dairy farmers do not rely on part of the $1.5 trillion dollar US farm bill (USA taxpayer money) to help reduce milk prices. Occasionally, Canadian dairy farmers have to re-educate our news media “food experts” about how our Canadian supply management marketing system works. Don’t be afraid to talk to any Canadian dairy farmer about how the Canadian consumers have a say in how much of the price of milk that the dairy farmer receives – it’s based on a cost of production formulae.
