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Economist bullish for butterfat demand

A dairy economist says domestic butter manufacturers have an opportunity to serve more of the U.S. market.

Corey Geiger with CoBank says butter imports since the pandemic have skyrocketed.

“The growth this year, up 72 percent,” he says. “We’re setting records for butterfat and the American farmer can’t send enough of it to the processor.”

He says the trend for higher milk solids and more butterfat has only gotten stronger over the past decade

“This tells me the upside of what dairy farmer in this country can send to the processing plant has not been tapped yet,” he says.

Geiger says he hopes the USDA will modernize milk production reports to better track component levels and help improve risk management tools for the industry.

Geiger made his remarks at the recent USDA Ag Outlook Forum.