News

Dairy farmers are not making 2024 risk management decisions yet

A German dairy economist says U.S. farmers are not making 2024 milk risk management decisions yet.

Tersten Hemme with the International Farm Comparison Network asked farmers at World Dairy Expo how many of them have their 2024 risk management plans in place, and no one responded.  Hemme says farmers might be holding out for prices to peak. “What it tells me is a lot of U.S. farmers are very optimistic of a high price or a price recovery to come.”

Hemme says there are two possible price scenarios going forward.  One is that prices will stabilize at around $20.00 per hundredweight.  Hemme says the other less likely option would be dairy prices topping out this year, reaching lows in 2023, and recovering in 2024. “There will be times when the milk price in the U.S. will be $13 per hundredweight. I cannot exactly predict when it’s the case, but I think we have two price cycles of around three years or four years in the next ten years.”

Hemme was a speaker at the Global Dairy Symposium held Thursday at World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin.