Cheap beef and wasted milk: US agriculture struggles with virus

Milk dumped in fields and cattle prices plunging even as steaks stay expensive: the coronavirus pandemic is hitting American farmers hard.

With industries from restaurants to department stores forced to close, farmers haven't stopped working, but are finding demand unpredictable and supply chains are struggling to adapt to the new conditions.

Dairy farmers often struggle to store excess production, and Brenda Cochran, who runs a 70-cow dairy farm in Pennsylvania along with her husband, said she was ordered twice recently to dump her milk.

In line with environmental regulations, the couple loaded their excess milk into a manure spreader and dumped it on their fields.

"Dumping our milk and seeing, at the same time, the images in the press of empty dairy shelves make us angry," Cochran said.

"We have the same COVID-19 anxiety everyone else has," and after years of very low dairy low prices, Cochran said the couple is also facing "this long-term anxiety every month of not being able to meet our bills."
"Meanwhile in the cash market, the breaking of the supply chain has created perturbations all around and we started to see empty shelves."
The president tweeted on Thursday that he has directed the Secretary of Agriculture "to expedite help to our farmers, especially to the smaller farmers who are hurting right now."