Dairy markets analyst expects milk prices to go up in 2017

University of Wisconsin Professor Mark Stephenson, a dairy markets and policy analyst and director of the UW Center for Dairy Profitability, recently said he expects milk prices to go up in 2017 due to a strong demand and a tightening supply.

“(In) large countries that have demanded dairy products including China, and for us personally, Mexico, demand has picked up quite a bit in the last several months, and other major exporters including the European Union, New Zealand and Australia have been down in milk production fairly significantly,” Stephenson said.

Stephenson said it only takes a 1 or 2 percent change in world milk production to have a major impact on dairy prices. He said he expects a big surge in dairy prices but isn’t sure if it will occur in late 2017 or early 2018.

“We think that we’re on the upswing of that and that it’s genuine and legitimate, and barring some kind of wholesale world collapse like we had back in 2009, I don’t think that we’re going to see these prices retrench," h Stephenson said.  "I think we’ll see them continue to climb through 2017.”