Female dairy calves, wanted 3 years ago to meet milk demand, mature at a bad time for farmers

We reported Monday that dairy farmers across the country were participating in a herd-retirement program to reduce the milk surplus caused by the recession, but now we learn from William Neuman of The New York Times that that a new breeding process will flood the industry with 63,000 more cows in 2009 and 161,000 in 2010.

Three years ago, dairy farmers received what they saw as a needed technological breakthrough, while milk prices were soaring. It allowed them to breed for female calves, with a 90 percent success rate. Now the first groups of female calves bred with the new technology is set to enter milking herds across the country as the industry weathers its worst downturn in years. Farmers fear the process, known as sexed semen, could introduce as many as 300,000 cows in 2011. While those numbers are still just a fraction of the 9.2 million cows nationwide, Neuman writes, they essentially cancel out herd-retirement initiatives.

“Just as the industry starts to recover from these difficult times, we’re going to see these heifers enter the marketplace,” Ray Souza, president of Western United Dairymen, which represents farmers who produce about 60 percent of the milk in California, tells Neuman. “At the very worst it could certainly stop the recovery altogether and send us into another price recession.” (Read more)