Organic Milk in Texas

[Guest guest]

I have three dairies in NE Texas. The organic one that I have talked

about on the list. Another commercial dairy that I milk 600 cows at.

The last one is a 30 cow dairy that is licensed to sell RAW MILK and

we also have a manufacturing license.

At this dairy we use low temp pasteurization, no soy and non

homogenized. Not as good as raw but we are able to distribute to Whole

Foods and Central Market in Dallas, Austin and soon in Houston. WE

SELL LESS THAN 5 GALLONS PER WEEK RAW MILK. Nobody in this area wants

it, We are over an hour from Dallas and no one wants to drive that

far. No local support for our Butter, Yogurt, buttermilk, chocolate

milk, skim or whole milk. Take our product to big cities we sell out

every week. Remember When Dairy. rememberwhendairy.com

With all that said I'll give my opinion. I don't think big companies

are after organic land. Organic Valley takes pride in not owning

hardly anything. They don't even own the plants where their milk is

processed. I have several hundred acres of certified organic land of

which some is for sale. No buyers at $4000/acre. I truly believe that

it is just a management decision on OV to drop Texas farms.

Now if you want to talk about how big companies control the milk

market. Dairy Farmers of America is the only Co-op that buys

commercial milk in Texas. No competition. Milk is priced on what

cheese brings. Here are some facts. More than half of all the milk

produced is used to make cheese. It takes 10 pounds of milk to make

one pound of cheese. Half of all the cheese made is used in

restaurants. When people stop eating out the price of cheese goes down

and therefore the price of milk follows. On top of this almost all

cheese trading on CME is done by Kraft. Kraft determines what everyone

pays for cheese thus directly affecting the price the farmer gets for

their milk. Currently cheese is trading for $1.10 per pound on the

CME. This is 1 penny above government price support.

Throw in that 3 years ago they came up with sexed semen that gives 92%

heifers and now we have too many cows. Sorry for the length. I still

need a home for about 1000 gallons of certified raw milk a week. If

anyone knows if there would be a market for 1000 pounds of cheese per

week let me know.

Thanks,

Kent