Perry, Ga |

It’s been quite the roller coaster for dairy producers over the past few years as fluctuating prices and input costs have resulted in quite a bit of uncertainty. However, things are currently trending upward after a promising 2024.

“In 2022, you had some supply and demand. You had increased demand for milk. There’s not that supply to go with it. Prices went up, but like with everything else, with inflation, those input costs skyrocketed with it. So, you didn’t really have a margin. You just had higher prices for everything. Supply and demand will reverse itself. You get enough supply; demand goes back down. Price goes back down. But those input costs didn’t come with it. So, ’23 you saw the margins shrink or disappear completely. ’24 you finally had those feed costs, labor, fuel, some of these things the farmers really can’t control come back down to where the milk price was and demand had been relatively stable,” says Bryce Trotter, Executive Director of the GA Milk Producers.

With nearly twenty percent of all US milk products being exported, a recent trade war with Canada and Mexico is a point of concern as it has the potential to reduce that demand.

“Is the export market going to stay where it is? We don’t export a lot of milk products in the southeast. But the dairy economy nationwide kind of feeds off of itself. So, if those export markets go away, you got excess supply of milk. That all kind of trickles back down and affects the demand, which will affect the price for milk. So, export markets and what’s going on with tariffs and trade policy is going to a big thing that our farmers are going to watch,” says Trotter.

They will also be keeping a close watch on the current avian influenza outbreak that has found its way into more than 900 dairy herds across seventeen different states.

“Our producers are keeping an eye on it. I wouldn’t say that anyone is worried, but we’re paying attention and that’s what we should be doing. We’re in constant communication with the Department of Agriculture here in Georgia to come up with a plan if it does come to the Southeast. But our farmers are just keeping an eye on it, doing what they can on their farm to beef up biosecurity and prepare,” says Trotter.

The health of the industry will also depend on a number of dairy operations bouncing back from the storms that swept across southeast Georgia late last year.

“Not only did the storms come through during harvest season, but our harvest season is every day, three hundred and sixty-five days a year. So, a lot of the impacts that we see aren’t just the day of and the day after the storm, but those effects on the cows and their milk production, the stress from the storm, you can feel that for weeks afterwards, decreased milk production,” says Trotter.

In spite of some of these issues and hardships within the industry, 2025 is shaping up to be a promising year for producers thanks in large part to the rising number of consumers around the region.

“We’re seeing a trend here in the Southeast where a lot more people are drinking fluid milk which is what we produce, especially whole milk. So, we’re quietly optimistic for a good year for dairy farmers and we’re just happy to see that trend in fluid milk consumption and dairy consumption overall continue to tick up,” says Trotter.

By: Damon Jones