The U.S. dairy industry may be poised for possible expansion. But there may be some factors that could hinder any ideas of this. Rusty Halvorson has the story.
Shawn Hackett of Hackett Financial Advisors says there are some uncertainties – like the current avian influenza situation.
“It’s now expanded into California, and we’ve had buyers get very fearful about future production and have been front-end loaning their purchases well into the future because they’re concerned about the future supply.”
One-hundred dairies in California’s Central Valley have cattle infected with H5N1 Avian influenza, according to a recent update by state and federal agriculture agencies.
According to Hackett, another factor that could hinder expansion in the U.S. dairy industry is the limited availability of dairy heifers.
“Right now, what I see is probably one of the tightest, greatest shortages of dairy heifers we’ve ever seen, meaning that even if the dairyman decides he wants to go out and expand – it doesn’t mean he can’t – but I don’t think we can turn this faucet on as quickly as we’ve done before.”
In its October World Ag Supply and Demand Estimates report, USDA lowered its milk production forecast for 2024 based on a slight decrease in growth for milk production per cow – dropping 100 million lbs. to 225.8 billion lbs. compared to last month’s report.