State’s dairy operations shrink while milk consumption sags

12th September 2011   ·   0 Comments

By Susan Buchanan
Contributing Writer

After reports of Japanese radiation in milk as close to Louisiana as Arkansas last spring, and also farther away in Arizona, the U.S. West Coast and Vermont, you might wonder how safe Louisiana’s milk supply is. Mike Strain, Louisiana commissioner of agriculture and forestry, said last week that the feds are keeping an eye on radiation, and he has seen no worries in local milk.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s monitoring system, RadNet, manages stations that collect air, rain, drinking water and milk samples to analyze radioactivity. Dave Bary, EPA spokesman in Dallas, said “while there are no dairies being monitored for radiation in Louisiana, those in surrounding states—Arkansas, New Mexico, and Texas—were monitored this spring and no readings above the Food & Drug Administration’s guidance level of 4,400 pCi/lt were found.”

That’s good to know, but all is not well in milk land regardless. Consumption is down 22 percent nationally in the last 35 years, though cheese demand has risen, according to the U.S. Dept of Agriculture. The number of dairy cows has declined but milk production has grown because of higher output per cow.

Louisiana’s dairy farmers are concentrated in the southeastern part of the state, particularly in Tangipahoa and Washington parishes. Commissioner Strain said last week that Louisiana’s 145 milk producers earned gross revenues of $48.3 million last year, and that was well below 434 producers in 2000, with revenues of $97.5 million. Reasons for those declines include more dairy farmers over age 65 and low returns to producers, with prices set in Boston, Mass. under federal guidelines, he said.

Louisiana and neighboring states have tried, but have yet to form a Southern Dairy Compact to address the needs of the regional market, Strain said.

Other factors hurting Louisiana and all U.S. dairy farmers are costs of the three F’s—feed, fuel and fertilizer. Prices of milk and most foods have risen so much in the last year that consumers sometimes stare at store displays in disbelief. In a recent letter to customers on his company’s website, Jeff Kleinpeter, president of Kleinpeter Farms Dairy, L.L.C. in Baton Rouge, ex­plained that the federal government sets prices that processors pay monthly for raw milk, based on the availability and price of cows; corn supplies; prices of feed grains, diesel fuel and fertilizer; crop forecasts and transportation costs.

In Louisiana, dairy farms produce fluid milk, not cheese and other products. The state imports about half of its milk needs from Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.

On the consumption side, we’re a nation of milk drinkers, or at least we used to be. Federally subsidized programs promote milk to children, who often need to be prodded into drinking it. Linda Greco, a registered dietician and program manager with the non-profit Southeast United Dairy Industry Association, Inc. in Kenner, said “at one time, water and milk were the primary beverages for children. But with competition from sports drinks, energy drinks, juices and carbonated juices, along with traditional, flavored and vitamin waters, it’s a challenge as a dietitian to help children understand why milk remains an excellent choice.”

Greco said eight ounces of milk provide three of the four “nutrients of concern” that children need — calcium, vitamin D and potassium — outlined in the USDA’s 2010 Dietary Guideline. Doctors and dietitians recommend milk for bone health and physical growth, she noted. And she said that an individual serving from a gallon at the supermarket only costs about 25 cents.

Some experts question that traditional, dietary wisdom, however. Robert Cohen, head of the non-profit Dairy Education Board in Oradell, New Jersey, said “most people along the Gulf Coast should already be getting enough Vitamin D from sunshine.” He warned that “milk contains hormones that aren’t good for girls, boys or adults, and it also contains pus from cows.” On modern dairy farms, unlike traditional herding societies, cows in late stages of pregnancy are milked, and their hormones show up in milk.

Commissioner Strain, a doctor of veterinary medicine, took issue with those comments, however. As for cows being milked in the later stages of pregnancy, he said today’s dairy farmers give cows sixty days to “dry up,” when they aren’t milked before calving, and he believes that’s enough time. Strain also said that mastitis—utter infections in cows which create pus in milk—have been on the decline because of improved dairy practices.

But Cohen raised other doubts about milk, saying despite talk about the need for calcium to build bones, dairy-loving Nort­hern European countries like Norway, Sweden and Denmark have high rates of osteoporosis. People who barely touch dairy products, like the Okinawa islanders in Japan, live a long time. “In Okinawa, they don’t spend the last twenty years of their lives dying from clogged arteries and hip fractures,” he said. “They just die one day.”

The only real reason to drink milk is if you happen to want a milk mustache, Cohen said. He said most people should try to consume more magnesium, rather than calcium. Magnesium, found in beans, nuts and vegetables, builds bones and fights off heart disease, according to nutritionists. Commissioner Strain said people need both calcium and magnesium, and he agrees with the advice that you probably got as a kid to drink three glasses of milk a day.

Louisiana schools and child care institutions participate in four USDA-funded projects—the National School Lunch, School Breakfast, Special Milk and Summer Food Service programs—administered by the Louisiana Dept. of Education.

As for those discoveries in Arkansas last spring, processed milk samples, taken by the Arkansas Dept. of Health on March 30, showed high levels of iodine-131 per liter that were linked to the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan. But the readings were of little concern to state and federal authorities. Though the samples exceeded EPA’s maximum contaminant level for iodine-131, that threshold is for long-term exposure, and iodine-131 from Japan’s accident was expected to be only temporary, authorities said.

The radiation found in Arkansas’s samples hit close to home, however. People who live in Shreveport and Monroe, La. are a quick hop from their neighboring state to the north. And Louisiana imports milk from Arizona, where radiation from Japan was also detected this spring.

This article was originally published in the September 12, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper