While many companies are ramping up capacity in cheese and milk plants across the country, the national shortage of dairy replacement heifers may crimp the amount of milk flowing into those facilities in the near future.
Matt Tranel a dairy market advisor from Ever Ag in Platteville told members of the farmer-owned Scenic Central Milk Producers Cooperative during the annual meeting in Richland Center, that the number of dairy replacement heifers has plummeted nearly 15 percent over the last six years, marking the lowest dairy herd replacement number since 2004, according to the USDA.
He said the number of dairy heifers peaked in 2016.
"Today, the cost of raising a dairy replacement can be as high as $2,400 to $3,000, as inputs have gotten more expensive," said Tranel, who grew up on a farm in southwestern Wisconsin. "New cheese plant capacity is on the way with large plants under construction in Minnesota, South Dakota, Kansas and the Panhandle of Texas. But how do we keep all the cheese and powder plants full when we don’t have a ton of heifers out there?”
Jan Shepel
March 12,2024
