How much of the milk is actually drink vs used for butter / cheese / ice cream?

[Rmay635703]

It is somewhat interesting in that skim milk exports (to any country) from Canada were restricted via punitive tariffs as a result of the renegotiation of NAFTA into the U.S. – Mexico – Canada Agreement. There was talk about it being one of things that made things a bit difficult during the recent infant formula shortage, since dry milk exports from Canada to the US pretty much ended as a result of the tariffs that kicked in.

Trump extracted another major concession on Canadian dairy: Restrictions on our skim milk exports

It's an odd concession by Canada and one with potentially significant consequences

financialpost.com

This problem isn’t unique to Canada. As appetites move to creamier foods that rely on butter fat as a core ingredient, farmers in many countries, including the U.S., are struggling to find profitable homes for the skim milk and other byproducts that are left​

Skim milk always used to be cheap cheap cheap. I drank a lot of it and dry milk as a kid because we were broke and it was half the cost of whole.

Many fermented products can be made from skim including sweeteners, kefir, yogurt, ice milk, could also make types of cheese or whey products which are rather expensive. Of all the things I’ve seen “fat free sour cream”, high protein and carb compared to the real stuff. Dry milk can also improve a variety of recipes over “dairy free”

Not saying any of these products are as valuable or profitable but in the old days you could have quality (high milk fat) or quantity based on the breed of cow and the feed.
In the old days there was a giant price difference between different types of dairy products, if some are cheap, those that are broke will consider buying the low cost dairy options

I would guess all milk products have a market as there are lots of animals and starving people in the world that need food

Farmers leaned strongly toward volume over high milk fat in the 80’s, which given the cyclical trends was in error.

They seem to be inflexible in moving back to a more diverse herd to get milk fat up.

Much of the problem is due to the farmer being divorced from the $$$$ that can be made off additional milk fat meaning volume pays more, even though more fat is best.

 

[53' Stude]

Right from our Barn to the fridge about 3 days sitting.Raw Goat milk the girls are milking at around 5% Butterfat
The spoon was a pull from the top of jars.
View attachment 107570View attachment 107571

I always like goats milk cheese. Never had fresh goat milk though

 

[vavavroom]

Many cheeses are best made with milk from brown Swiss cows or American brown Swiss cows. Their milk is high in fat and high in protein and provides the best favor for cheese. Holstein-Frisian cows are the most common milk cows almost anywhere because they produce more milk than any other breed of cattle. If I were to get a cow it would be a brown Swiss or a Jersey cow. I'd call her Buttercup.

 

[Duffyjr]

A gallon of milk does not have a quart of cream. No way.

I suspect a portion of skim milk gets turned into milk powder for various things like Hershey bars.

I know egg whites are used as filler for cake mixes, candy bars etc. One of my first jobs I had was at Henningsen foods, they processed egg whites into powder. They also dehydrate meat for the Campbell soup factory in Omaha as well as flavoring for Ramen noodles.

 

[vavavroom]

A gallon of milk does not have a quart of cream. No way.

What kind of cream? Homemade cream skimmed off whole milk? Commercially made types of cream have a large range of milkfat that gets emulsified with more or less milk so it becomes anything from half and half 10.5-18% milkfat) to light whipping cream (30-35% milkfat) to heavy whipping cream milkfat)(36% milkfat) to to double cream (48%) to clotted cream (ca 60% milkfat). Sour cream has about 20% milkfat. How much cream you get from milk depends on the milkfat content of the final; product.

 

[SHOZ]

We used a lot of whey at Kraft Foods.


Most of my dairy is 80% heavy whipping cream and 20% cheese. Maybe a gallon a week of cream.