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By Alice McFarlane

Milk Production

Lower demand results in milk dumping

Apr 3, 2020 | 3:04 PM

Saskatchewan milk producers are feeling the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Producers are being forced to dump milk as a result of lower consumption due to the closure of food services and restaurants.

SaskMilk manager of policy and research Joy Smith said it’s not just happening in Saskatchewan.

“It spread across the country and, in fact, we’re hearing stories of this right around the world,” she said. “COVID-19 has sort of changed the landscape out there and how everything works. The impact that it’s had on dairy is that all of these restaurants and coffee shops are closed so that’s dramatically shifting the demand for some of the products.”

Smith said there have also been swings in demand for milk products at the retail level.

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“It’s very erratic, it’s fluctuating. Retailers and processors are having a hard time. They’re struggling to figure out the new normal. We don’t know what that is yet,” she said. “In the meantime, the market for some of those products, especially cream has dropped.”

Smith said this all happened in just over a week. Processors don’t have space for milk. She said it’s hard to gauge how much milk has been lost.

“I won’t know the numbers for a little bit because it’s actually changing hourly and daily, depending on what processors can do and what they can pull in. It feels like a lot, because every single litre lost, every single drop feels like too much. But we’re trying to keep it in perspective. We’re hoping to keep it down to a few per cent of production. It still feels like a lot though,” she said.

Smith said unfortunately, cows don’t have an on/off switch and farmers are reacting the best they can.

“We’re asking all farmers across Canada to make some adjustments. They’re going to be tightening up production a little and maybe drying off a cow earlier. But you don’t want to make dramatic shifts in production because we just don’t know what the new normal is going to be.”

Smith said it’s upsetting for farmers when they have to dump milk.

“Our farmers, they’re getting up at four in the morning, they’re taking care of their cows, they’re milking the cows and then they’re being told they have to dispose of that milk. You can imagine how devastating that would be to feel like you’ve done all of this work and put in all this effort for what feels like nothing. It’s really hard for them and it’s hard for all of us. None of us want to see this happening,” she said.

Smith said efforts are being made to get some of that product going to food banks.

“Right across the country but in Saskatchewan as well, we’re looking to ramp up our food bank donations. You can’t just say we’re going to donate to the food bank because milk still has to be pasteurized and it still has to be turned into a product,” she said. “Milk is over four per cent fat and milk in your grocery store is one per cent, two per cent and 3.25 per cent. It still has to go through a processor, it still has to be pasteurized, and it still has to be turned into something. There is only so much room because processors just don’t have the space right now because they’re storing all of the extra.”

Smith said she hopes next week she will have more specific numbers on what food banks will be receiving but expects it will be in the hundreds of thousands of liters of dairy products.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF