Confusion

The last post seemed to make perfect sense to me, at the time, but in hindsight, my apologies for the confusion.

Let me break it down into pieces. First, DFA’s symbol, Uncle Sam (cow or bull?) – maybe Sam could be female but not Uncle and female. Yet DFA uses the term “she.” Moreover, the patriotism embedded in the symbol seemed ironic since DFA holds so many licenses to import dairy products.

DFA has told some people they don’t use the licenses. Well the official policy is, use it or lose it.

Then in a couple publications, there is mention of butter stocks increasing with no mention of imports. Imported butter is counted as domestic stocks once it has been here more than 30 days. There appears to be a desperate need to import butter by virtue of the increase in “high tier” butter imports.

And finally, milk production is not down all that much, according to the USDA NASS report. Exports are still way off and that is the claimed reason for low farm milk price and government purchase of NFDM. Nevertheless, the government bought no NFDM this week.

The official claims are confusing enough; I did not mean to add to the confusion.