Kimberly's Adventures

This New York Times article addresses the production costs in supplying organic milk to the nation’s consumers. It highlights the gap between production cost and consumer price expectation that is pressing on organic dairy farmers as they try to meet the rising demand for this product. 

My personal critique of this article is that in assessing the cost and production it does not mention another important component of dairy farming that is often overlooked by consumers, that being the lactation cycle for each cow. Depending on when a cow freshens (has its calve) the seasonality of high milk production is affected. Traditionally there is a surge of cows freshening in the spring and therefore a lull in milk availability in the winter months. In order to shift the seasonal balance of production some farms schedule (and may be given incentives to shift) their cows’ freshen dates to provide for the heaviest portion of their lactation during the high winter months. Here the argument could return to the price of forage and feed because the animals must be well cared for through these winter months.