Vreba-Hoff

http://www.agd.nl/1088216/Nieuws/Varkenshouderij/Vreba-Hoff-boeren-in-de-knel.htm

In the above link is a story from the Netherlands which claims numerous Dutch immigrants who enticed to come to the U.S. with money in their hands have returned empty handed.

Land O Lakes

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1032562/000095012309058264/c54500exv99w1.htm

Land O Lakes third quarter SEC filing is at the above link. Essentially, the picture for dairy is:

In Dairy Foods, the company reported third-quarter sales of $776 million and pretax earnings of $8.9 million, versus sales of $985 million and a $25.4 million pretax loss for the third quarter of 2008. Year-to-date sales in Dairy Foods were $2.2 billion, versus $3.1 billion for the first three quarters of 2008. The company reported $9.0 million in pretax earnings in Dairy Foods through September, versus $14.2 million in pretax earnings for the first three quarters of 2008.
Volumes in Dairy Foods were mixed, but generally reflected a consumer shift toward lower-priced private label products. Overall Value Added volume was down 1 percent versus one year ago. Volume in the company’s industry-leading branded butter was down 1 percent, while the company’s private label butter volume was up 1 percent. Retail cheese volume (Deli and Dairy Case) was down 4 percent versus the first three quarters of 2008, while Dairy Solutions (Foodservice and Ingredient Solutions) was up 7 percent. In the Industrial segment, Cheese volumes were up 6 percent over the same period last year, Whey volume was down 1 percent and volume in Butter By-Products was flat.
Company officials, while noting that Dairy Foods’ performance over the first three quarters was negatively affected by commodity market volatility and the impact of higher prices and economic uncertainty on consumer purchasing decisions, indicated expectations for a strong fourth quarter. Fourth-quarter results, they said, should be bolstered by traditional holiday volume increases and the effective hedging of inventory positions earlier in the year, which should generate fourth-quarter gains.

Note, there is nothing in the report to suggest people are consuming less dairy.

Tucked in, is an interesting tidbit, “Unrealized hedging gain” of $39,742,000. Talk about risk management – where is the money going to come from if not dairy farmers?

Corruption Inside the USDA

http://www.lulu.com/product/download/corruption-inside-the-usda/5636387

The above link takes you to a book which can be downloaded. The book is described as:

An insider's report to the American public on : intentional routing of contaminated milk into America's food supply; funding a USDA office via the contaminated milk processor as it supplies infant formula production; associated extraction of dairy farmer money; involved U.S. Department of Agriculture appointees; and evidence held inside the U.S. Department of Justice.

One of the central ideas in the book relates to the concept of whether or not the high-count milk was Grade A. Actually, it is the farm and not the milk which is or is not Grade A.

Otherwise, the book is an interesting read on gaming the system. There is an unwritten story between the lines about the concentration within the industry and the geographical space which milk must travel, unrefrigerated.

Signs of the times

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Frustrations are to be seen everywhere. The above photo was sent to me and confirms that one picture is worth a thousand words.

Every picture has a value. After several people sent me an email of my picture of Nestle's Sweetened Condensed Milk which was lifted with just a couple of clicks from this blog, I decided to put my name on all further pictures. I certainly don't mind people sending information or pictures they find on this blog but, there is an investment of time, money and knowledge which goes into the blog and each picture. So, please, if you are going to use something, give credit where credit is due.

Yogurt

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USDA, today, released their "Dairy Products" report. One item I have been following all year is the production of yogurt. No one ages yogurt. No one makes yogurt without an order. No one would be ordering more yogurt if sales were down.

One can only logically conclude, rumors of the death of dairy sales are, and have been, premature.

California

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California's Department of Food and agriculture lists: Emergency Hearing – All Classes – November 9, 2009.

Supposedly, the purpose is to raise the price to California dairy farmers. But, wait a minute. CDI, a Capper-Volstead co-op wants more. CDI wants an increase in make allowances.

Can a similar proposal for the federal milk orders be far behind. One can imagine a certain Northeast co-op pleading for a level playing field with California, which can only be realized by increasing the make allowance.

Crops and Weather

http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/current/WWNatSumm/WWNatSumm-11-03-2009.pdf

Corn: Acreage at or beyond the mature stage advanced to 94 percent, 4 points behind last year and 5 points behind the 5-year average. The most significant delay was evident in North Dakota where crop maturity was 34 points, or over 1 month behind normal. Producers had harvested 25 percent of the Nation’s crop by week’s end, 28 points behind last year and 46 points, or 1 month, behind the average. Harvest delays of 3 weeks or more were evident in the 6 largest corn-producing States, with progress in Illinois over 5 weeks behind normal. Overall, 67 percent of the corn crop was reported in good to excellent condition, down 2 points from ratings last week but 3 points better than last year. Conditions in unharvested corn fields throughout the Great Plains, Corn Belt, and Great Lakes continued to deteriorate as reports of unfavorably
high moisture levels and mold were reported.