News

Future of dairy consumption could lie with a love for butter and ice cream

A new report compares how population changes could impact future dairy demand.

Senior dairy analyst Ben Laine with Terrain tells Brownfield by 2050, people 70 years and older will make up the largest segment of the population.

“I wanted to figure out what does that mean for milk and what does that mean for dairy demand because we consume different types of dairy products throughout the course of our life,” he shares.

Laine says older consumers have increased their milk fat consumption dramatically in recent years and it’s a trend that’s likely to continue.

“I think that has implications for starting to think about genetics on the farm, feed, and how we start to plan long term,” he says.

At the same time, Laine expects skim-solids demand domestically to flatline over the next decade.

Laine says the demand shifts could cause dairy farmers to focus more on milk component production growth rather than expanding their milking herds.

Terrain is a research group shared between American AgCredit, Farm Credit Services of America, and Frontier Farm Credit.