Milking what it's worth: Supply, demand affect farmers' push for yogurt business

This article was shared by our small dairy educator Fay Benson…..If local dairy farmers are going to benefit from consumers’ growing love affair with yogurt, something’s got to give.
With upstate yogurt facilities owned by Chobani and Fage expanding and a new plant coming online this summer in western New York, it would seem demand — and therefore prices — for milk produced by area farms would be on the rise.
But when it comes to milk, the law of supply and demand gets complicated, according to Washington County Farm Bureau President Tom Borden, who milks about 175 cows on his Easton farm.
“Having increased demand is good, and people consuming dairy is good, but yogurt turns out to be a lower-value product to the dairy farmer,” Borden said.  {Read More}