An ag economist for the National Milk Producers Federation says he expects an even higher rate of dairy farm closures in the coming year.
Peter Vitaliano tells Brownfield the USDA’s February Milk Production Report shows last year the U.S. lost nearly six percent of licensed dairy farms.
“That’s pretty much in line with the average reduction percentage-wise in the previous four years,” he says. “I suspect, due to a number of factors, we’ll probably see a larger drop than usual when the numbers come out a year from now.”
He says USDA’s farm numbers likely were collected before even more farms closed at the end of last year because of extremely low margins.