The “real” Price of a Gallon of Milk? (Farm Bankruptcies)

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What is the “real” price of a gallon of milk?

Why are we seeing one of the largest milk companies in the world file a REAL bankruptcies… Whats going on in the foods industry?

For one gallon of milk, (most people) in the United States think of the “national weighted average” price. The price for milk and in “most cities” according to the USDA is $3.50 to $4.00, compared to about $6.00 to 8.00+ for organic milk. (USDA Retail Milk Price Index 2020)

Unfortunately milk on the commodities market isn’t traded it “gallons”. So its difficult to understand the “price”. Class Grade “A” Milk futures are typically traded under the symbol “DA” and in a contract sizes of 200,000 lbs of Grade “A” cow's milk. The contracts are traded on something very similar to the “normal stock market” but are traded as “futures” in ticks of $.01 per “cwt”. worth $20 per contract. In North America, a “cwt” is equal to about 100 pounds or 112 pounds in the Europe (UK). So the “price” of milk to a stock broker is about $20 for 100 gallons. However, the price has CRASHED to about $10 or less (lowest in 10+ to 20 years!?)

The price of milk has crashed! What about the health of the animals? What about the farms?

We have all been hearing these quotes in the news. That “the current prices” are maybe some of the “lowest we will see in our lifetime?” But Milk!?!? and certainly the lowest in 10 years and including inflation of about 250% since the same gallon of milk in the 1970’s shouldn’t be the same price as one today? So we have to divide the prices by 2.5!

I happen to live in one of the 3 largest “milk producing” states in the United States (Idaho!). The largest “milk producing” states are California, Wisconsin, and Idaho. Idaho actually produces more milk then New York, Texas, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, New Mexico, or Washington. However, they all produce a LOT of milk! Each of these states produce about 10 BILLION pounds of milk EACH… with states like California and Wisconsin producing more then 30 to 40 billion pounds of milk? This is a LOT of milk! a billion is a thousand million! (1,000,000,000) and its 30 to 10 times even this number and globally the estimates are in the trillions of pounds of milk each year!?!

The United States is the largest milk producer in the world?! Here are the “weight” totals for milk globally are measured in Kilograms not Pounds. So these numbers are multiplied by x2.2 to get “pounds”. Keep in mind that one of the largest producers of Milk is filing for Bankrupt in the United States.

USA (91.3 billion kilograms)
India (60.6 billion kilograms) …
China (35.7 billion kilograms) ...
Brazil (34.3 billion kilograms) …
Germany (31.1 billion kilograms) ...
Russia (30.3 billion kilograms) ...
France (23.7 billion kilograms) ...
New Zealand (18.9 billion kilograms) ..

How are we treating the “big” animals? Is this a different bankruptcy because its with “real live animals?”

Many cows are treated HORRIBLY! It is actually totally terrifying to see videos of how cows are actually treated on farms today! Its TERRIFYING. I was totally shocked at the videos its almost impossible to describe how horrible some of the things done to cows are in these milking videos.

Today’s average dairy cow produces six to seven times as much milk as she did a century ago. With the rise of factory farming, milk is now a totally unnatural operation.  Videos on the internet show cows latterly being dumped using tractors, electrocuted, shot in the head, burned on the head while still alive, many many cows barely able to walk, having their font lags not able to stand and being dragged across the floor while their knee caps bleed.

This month one of the largest dairy company in the world and in the United States if finishing up and “filing” new paperwork for Bankruptcy and to “fire sale” everything all of their assets. We need someone to work on helping these farms! This cow milk company has been around for 94 years!? And is now in the final stages of their bankruptcy? They have made almost 7 billion dollars a year from cows milk? And had more than 50 national, regional and local dairy brands as well as private labels will all be “bankrupt” giving many dairy farmers “90 days” (from what you hear on the videos posted on the internet about farm closures). (Dean Foods, Organic Valley, Land-o-Lakes sound familiar?)

Cows in the dairy industry spend their lives in a constant cycle of “antibiotics to cure infections”... (chicken farmers are not legally allowed to give chickens hormone treatments anymore) however, cows seem to be injected with hormones to increase milk production (as long as they are not “traceable” by the USDA blood screening? and I personally live on a University Farm in Idaho where they actually cut holes it appears on “live cows” and attach “strange devices” that look like they are giving vitamins “for quick injection of experimental hormones” to the cows directly into these patches on their stomachs? The cows do NOT look happy! Imagine a field of cows all with “frisbees” disks surgically on their stomachs so that they “grow faster?” and injections can be make “easily”? This is maybe for real? And it looks like that from the roadside of the University Farms?

What is the price of milk?