Sticker shock at the grocery store!

All the dairy's in Idaho are that way. The cows just stand on piles of their own poo all day, I kids you not. I'll take pictures someday and post them.

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Ehh, whatever.

Right now, mom just paid $3.25 for a 2L carton...works out to $1.625 a L. There are roughly 3.78 L to US gallon.
I just got back from town and paid $1.07L for regular ($4.05 a gallon) gas/petrol

How do you not use that much milk?

We like having milk with our meals and in our cereal. Some days we don't quite use a gallon, but most days we do. I know we drink at least 5 gallons per week at a minimum. I'm diabetic and need to have snacks between meals....sometimes I drink a glass of milk if I'm too busy to sit down and eat. Probably has something to do with being used to having a milk cow. I had one for years. When you've got a refrigerator filled to the brim with gallons of milk you drink it with most of your meals.

Funny, I'm hearing less and less from the DW about the money I spent on my little Jersey. She did some mild grumbling at first, asked if I thought we really needed another cow, we have 20 Dexters. But when we just walk right on by the dairy case at the store I grin and she looks at the prices and shakes her head. Yep, Trisket gets cheaper every day.

Just curious... if milk is so expensive and you can't raise your own dairy cow/goat, why don't people just go buy milk at the nearest farm and support the farmer... and save yourself a buck while you're at it?

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http://tinksquared.com

Unless the local dairyman is a certified dairy and has their own pasturizer, they can't legally sell milk in most states. That would be a great solution but the penalties for violating the laws include huge fines and loss of livestock (in some cases). Way too many risks for me to ask someone to take.

I paid $1.39 for a small head of lettus yesterday!! That's the most I've ever paid. If it wasn't for my dd10 I would have passed it up, but we were having tacos and our garden lettus has gone bitter (I didn't plan ahead and plant every 2 weeks, I will now!). DD10 didn't chose a homesteading life style, so I'm weaning her away from convience food (looks like a head of lettus is now covience food at $1.39) and towards what we are producing. Good thing she likes cucumbers, becuase we have plently of those.

As for as MILK we have been slacking off milk for about the last 6 months, not because of the price, although turns out to be a good thing, but we just know that no one really needed that much milk any more. Breakfast is all kinds of things.

I sure am glad we began taking babysteps towards self sufficent living 3 years ago.

babysteps.
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Today at Poplar Hill:
-Waiting for mid-season lettus, chard and carrots to sprout
-Canning green beans and making pickels
-Planning my fall garden
-Cleaning the basement and organzing sewing stuff
-Line dyring towels, wash cloths and napkins
-Having brats, cucumbers and onions, sliced tomatoe, zuc./chocolate cake and ice tea for dinner.

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Gardening in the high plains of Cheyenne
www.christinemccreedy.blogspot.com

I bought a gallon of milk yesterday for $5.29. I said something about how expensive milk had gotten and the lady at the store said they were told it would be $7.50 by September.

Beth

“Farm milk prices will likely exceed $20.00 per cwt. this summer and could even approach $22.00 in some months,” says Wellington. “And early indicators are that 2008 could average close to $20 per cwt.”

http://www.agrimark.net/inside/news.php

It seems to be a combination of rising expences,
Australia being a leading supplier of international dairy products but has had a fifth year of drought 2007 milk production is expected to be 15% to 25% below 2006.

Almost no nonfat and whole milk powder has been exported by the EU since May 2006.

Earlier this year, India, the world's largest producer of milk (bovine and buffalo),suspended nonfat dry milk exports in order to protect domestic demand.

The worldwide demand for highly functional milk proteins has grown just as supplies have fallen and further declines in production is expected.

I is a complicated series of factors.

More info.

JUNE MILK PRICES INCREASED FROM MAY
http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_...n/prc70629.htm

Graph (PDF)
http://www.ams.usda.gov/dairy/mncs/g...MaClassIII.pdf

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We pay $6 a gallon for whole, raw, certified organic Jersey milk at a farm, but it is a complicated mess for them to be able to sell it legally.

And regarding milk prices, I heard it mentioned in a news program last week that it had reached $23 a hundred in Wisconsin. This isn't that current:
http://www.aae.wisc.edu/future/OUTLO...pp_June_07.pdf but gives some reasons for prices.

It's sad to think about all of the babies and kids that will go without because of the increased price. They really need to come up with another plant to use for Biofuel.

For years row crop farmers have endured increased input costs and static (low) prices for corn. They have, in essence, subsidized the food animal and dairy side of farming for years. I have no problem with seeing them finally make some money.

With all of the investment they have, and the gamble they take every year they plant, no one should begrudge them the profit the open market, biofuel or otherwise, allows them.

Hungry kids aren't the responsibility/problem of farmers, that falls upon their parents.

But, the unfortunate truth is that a lot of kids that will go without wouldn't have to if mom/dad would just cut down on or eliminate their cigarettes, booze, dope, lottery tickets.

Last summer California lost 25,000 milk cows during the heat wave. We just finished a heat wave where it never really cooled down during the evening. It puts stress on the cows and they produce less.

I just got back from the grocery store (Dillons) and checked the price of milk when I went by the display. Whole, 2%, etc. was all $2.99 per gallon.

Shhhh, don't tell them they could be charging more.

Because around here they can't or won't sell it to you.

I just back from getting 2 gallons of Skim and $3.05 Not Bad at all compared to what otehrs are paying.

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Oh my, dishes yet to wash and dry

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If you want prices to really go up then this would be fine. Supplies of milk are tight, it's not all about corn prices. Putting more herds on pasture would decrease supply even more.
Cows on corn do not require more medication. Mismanaged herds do. Corn was a big part of our feed either in silage or as high moisture corn and in the grain we fed. We did not have many problems with the the cows being sick because of the feed. We did not have acidosis, laminitis or any of the other problems that come from poor ration planning and herd mismanagement.
Cows may be ruminants and eat grass but what is corn really? What are oats, barley, rye......a form of grass that has highly potent seeds.

Just chiming in to give the Louisiana price of milk. $4.75 a gallon was the price yesterday....Needless to say I bought a box of powdered milk!!! It was $5.49 and should make 2 1/2 gallons.
I have read that adults do not need much milk but I feel my children do need a glass or two a day. --I am meaning about a cup or 8oz. That's really not that much, but it is enough. They take daily vitamins and we usually have other foods that supply needed nutrition.
I remember trying powdered milk as a child and saying I did not like it. We all usually buy 1% milk anyway and there is really not much difference. --I've been using it for a couple of months now in my cooking and it does fine.-- Also, the children never noticed until my 13 year old saw me making it one evening!

Make sure it DOES make 2-1/2 gals. I just looked at powdered non fat dry Milk and for the Big Box the one that would make 20 Quarts which is 5 gallons was $16.95~!~ Now this is the Store Brand also. And I buy Skim milk in bottles and that price was like I posted $3.05 a gallon so even if you do the math at $3.50 a gal, for 5 Gallons of milk that is $17.50~! The Powdered milk 55 cents Difference WOW, not much savings there now is it?. Now that was at $3.50 a gal for skim in bottles. I Bought Skim in Bottles for $3.05 a gallon SO, Powered Milk was HIGHER in Price then the liquid skim milk in bottles~!!!!!

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Oh my, dishes yet to wash and dry

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