North Dakota officials are fine-tuning plans for an upcoming conference on revitalizing the state's long-declining dairy industry.
Despite dairy's past struggles, there's good reason to think its future will be better, says Amber Boeshans, North Dakota Department of Agriculture livestock development specialist. She's part of the state Dairy Coalition, which represents dairy producers, leaders of crop groups and the dairy industry.
"Some exciting things are happening," she says.
The list includes:
• Milk prices have soared from about $9 per hundredweight in 2009, which Boeshans calls a "terrifying time" for dairy producers, to about $21 per hundredweight today.
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• The price of corn, a key feed for dairy cattle, has dropped to less than $2.50 per bushel from more than $7 per bushel a few years ago.
• Dairy producers can utilize the new dairy Margin Protection Program. The federal program provides financial assistance to farmers when the margin, or the difference between the price of milk and feed costs, falls below a specific level. The deadline to sign up for the voluntary program is Dec. 5.
"The program is a tremendous asset" for dairy producers, Boeshans says.
North Dakota officials, citing factors such as abundant feed and water, have worked for years to reverse the long dairy decline in the state, which today has fewer than 100 dairy operations. Those longstanding efforts have had little, if any, success.
But favorable milk and corn prices, combined with the dairy MPP, bright-en the outlook now, Boeshans says.
North Dakota's dairy industry also benefits because it can learn from South Dakota's successful efforts to expand dairy, she says.
South Dakota has more dairy cows now than a year ago, according to the most recent monthly figures from National Agricultural Statistics Service, an arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
North Dakota dairy production has dropped so much that NASS no longer measures it monthly.
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The North Dakota dairy revitalization conference will be held in February, with both the date and location still to be determined. North Dakota's relatively late grain harvest hampered efforts to set up the conference earlier, Boeshans says.
The conference will work to help existing dairy producers expand their operations and would-be dairy producers get started, she says.
