COLUMBUS, Ohio – What started out as a hopeful year for the dairy industry was sidetracked by the coronavirus pandemic, causing changes in how the public consumed dairy products, a Cornell University professor said recently.

Producers and processors had to respond quickly to those changes, and overall, did a good job in their responses, said Christopher A. Wolf, E.V. Baker professor of agricultural economics at the university. He spoke Nov. 12 during the virtual Multi-State Dairy Quality Conference. The event was hosted by officials from Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan.

“We entered 2020 with the most positive price outlook since 2014,” he noted. “The markets seemed to be pretty well balanced, not just here, but internationally. We had reason to believe we were getting out of some of the trade disputes that we’d had. There was the potential for improved dairy exports and we were fairly optimistic.

“It’s a little hard to foresee a global pandemic but when it did hit, really in force at the end of March and into April, it necessitated a really quick response in the dairy supply chain as food (consumption) away from home effectively shut down in many locations.”

Consumers tend to eat differently in restaurants than they do at home, Wolf pointed out. For example, they eat more butter, cream and cheese away from home.

Some restaurants – especially those serving fast food – found it easier to convert to carry out orders, he said. Many fine dining restaurants found the transition more difficult, Wolf added.

“The loss of the food service necessitated a large response in product mix, in packaging, in delivery routes, it had many implications,” he explained. “So some milk ended up being dumped. Other milk was transported long distances and sold at distressed prices.”

The dairy industry had to deal with several fairly immediate impacts on the demand side, including packaging size, a drop in butter and cream consumption, an increase in processed cheese consumption, and growth in consumption of extended shelf life and organic products.

Co-ops responded to the pandemic’s impact by implementing “base” programs that were based on some historic level of production, Wolf said. Any milk in excess of that would be responsible for excessive market adjustment costs. Farmers had to make decisions quickly on how they would respond, he added.

The U.S. government already had some programs designed to help producers. The Dairy Margin Coverage Program is an income over feed costs payment, Wolf said. Dairy Revenue Protection is crop insurance, he stated.

The Coronavirus Food Assistance Program – announced in April – authorized payments to farmers. The USDA also announced the Farmers to Families Food Box Program. For that program, the agency is expected to purchase about $4 billion in various food products through the end of the year.

As for where the market is now, there are still several issues impacting the dairy industry moving forward, Wolf said. Even in states without formal stay-at-home orders, many people are not willing to go out. It’s unclear if government food purchases will continue. It’s also uncertain if U.S. government income support, such as unemployment benefits, will continue.

Farmers and stress

Farming, not just in the dairy industry, is a stressful, high-risk profession, said Eric Karbowski, a community behavioral health educator focusing on farm stress programming with Michigan State University extension.

The fatality rate for farming was 20.4 deaths per 100,000 workers in 2017, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last year. Three of four farmers surveyed said it would be easy for them to access opioids. An inadequate medical presence exists in most rural communities, he said.

One source of stress is what’s known as the agrarian imperative, Karbowski stated. This is “a notion that the farmers are so deeply connected and rooted to their land that losing it would be the equivalent of losing a family member. A lot of times we may connect this with generational farms but I also say that if you’re a first-generation farmer, you’ve put all of your time, your equity, your assets and resources and blood, sweat and tears into that. It goes much beyond an occupation in many cases.”

Signs of stress include headaches, stomach aches, high blood pressure, too much or too little sleep, over- or under-eating, increased use of cigarettes, drugs or alcohol, Karbowski said. People under stress may also be anxious, angry, sad, bitter or depressed.

“This isn’t a one-size-fits-all for everybody,” he noted. “Each person deals with stress differently, it looks different for each person. What works for you is what I would encourage you to focus on.”

Farmers are fiercely independent and asking for help is the last thing they want to do, Karbowski acknowledged. He suggested asking open-ended questions to anyone who seems under stress. For example, instead of asking, “Are you feeling OK?” ask, “How do you feel about that?” Or, instead of, “Do you need help?” ask, “How do you hope I might be able to help you?”

It’s appropriate to ask someone if they are having thoughts of suicide, he noted. If they say yes, don’t leave them alone. Don’t be afraid to call 911, a hospital or health care professional, he said.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 800-273-TALK (8255). For the Crisis Text Line, text ‘GO’ to 741741 or visit www.crisistextline.org.