Photo by Jay Young Lily Woodis, left, and Chautauqua County Dairy Princess LynDee Nagel check on cows in the milking barn at Country Ayre Farms in Dewittville.

While milk prices have rebounded from some of the disruptions caused by COVID-19, uncertainty still remains for the dairy industry moving forward.

Unprecedented changes in the demand for milk products have impacted dairy farmers across the state, with some being forced to dump milk that could not be processed.

Dairy farms often coordinate with a cooperative to sell their milk, which is then priced based on a number of different factors before farmers are paid a total milk check.

With the fallout of the pandemic, farmers have come to expect uncertainty from those checks.

“The pricing the last couple of months has been really weird,” said Heather Woodis of Country Ayre Farms in Dewittville. “At first the milk price was down really low, so we kind of took a hit there. Milk pricing is a very complicated formula with different classes, there is fluid milk, cheese, butter and powder. Normally it is all very consistent and COVID has made it not consistent.”

Woodis said that August had brought with it better news for some dairy producers.

“This month everything kind of shifts back into balance, and we will see what happens as schools reopen. The schools were really great about including dairy products in the lunches that they sent home, but there was still a dip.”

The Dairy Market Watch Newsletter, which records changes in dairy pricing and is produced by Cornell Cooperative Extension, has tracked changes in the dairy market for Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie and Steuben counties.

The price of Class 1 liquid milk remained above $20 going back to July 2019 before sliding to $19.89 in April 2020, $16.20 in May and $14.67 in June.

That price rebounded to $19.81 in for July.

The statistical uniform price in Jamestown dropped from $16.59 in March to $13.77 in April, hitting $12.32 in May before rebounding in July.

Pricing is dependent on demand for different milk products, like butter, cheese and dry milk, and also goes through some seasonal changes.

“Typically, in mid-to-late August, milk supplies get diverted from summer cheese production into bottling for school district orders,” the report states. “However, with many schools throughout the United States preparing for virtual/at-home learning, at least to start the school year, more milk remains in Class III (cheese) manufacturing.”

Alycia Drwencke, dairy management specialist with Cornell Cooperative, explained that “milk markets are still a bit unstable, and while things are looking optimistic at the moment, anything could happen.”

Large quantities of dairy products are used in food service at restaurants, in addition to stocks of products allocated for schools. Those markets have changed drastically in the last six months.

Country Ayre Farms partners with Sorrento Lactalis to sell its milk, which enters the cheese market.

“We did not have to dump milk, that was very fortunate for us,” Woodis said. “I would say things have stabilized this month. So in the month of August, we’ll actually get paid in September for this month, will probably be the first time we’ve had what I would say is a normal milk check since COVID started. The fluid market has jumped up enormously, which we love. We love that our people are drinking milk.”

Woodis said that over the last several years, some dairy farmers have had to get accustomed to difficult markets, which may have helped as a buffer for COVID disruptions.

“In the industry itself leading u p to this we had had a hard five years anyways, so I think we were pretty prepared because we were pretty lean going into this,” she said. “So we were able to weather it pretty well. We just encourage people to keep buying dairy.”