The value of cheese has dropped about 40% in the past month, according to commodity figures. A farm financial analyst attributes the economic slowdown, as well as shifts in production and consumption as potential reasons for the price drop.
Thom Kriegl of the UW Center for Dairy Profitability says the decrease in price is "a great concern" to Wisconsin dairy farmers. Kriegl says the price of cheese has been on downward trend since 2007 but significantly dropped the last several weeks.
Kriegl calls it a volatile dairy industry where farmers see rapid changes in prices to their product and have to cope with changes to their input costs, such as fuel and fertilizer.
Wisconsin has 15,000 dairy farmers.
