Breaking free from the chains of the past Where
truth moves faster than a Holstein calf No law
waiting on some printed page We're charting new
ground in the digital age From genomic codes
to robot facts We cut through the noise, no hold
them back not your daddy's dairy news tonight
we're sparking Welcome back to the Bullvine Podcast,
where we cut through the dairy industry noise
to get you the insights that actually matter
for your operation. If you're tired of the fluff
and just want the hard numbers, you are in the
right place. And today we are doing something
a little bit different. Usually we're digging
into a genetics report or a new piece of tech.
But today we're essentially looking at a crime
scene. A crime scene. Yeah. That is. That's a
dramatic way to start, even for you. Is it, though?
I mean, honestly, when I look at the numbers
we've got on the desk, it's not that far off.
We're watching the slow death of a business model
that, you know, most of our listeners have bet
their entire lives on. OK, that's a fair point.
I see where you're going. It's a crime scene
because we're dissecting what we call the volume
trap. And we've got two stacks of paper here.
In this hand, I've got the USDA numbers for 2026,
the North American reality. And in this hand,
there's a feature piece called gold medal margins.
The Italian Value Model for Dairy Profits. And
that title alone, I think, is going to make some
people uncomfortable. The Italian Value Model.
It sounds like something you'd buy at a boutique,
not something you'd run a farm on. I love this
topic, though. The timing is just perfect. Because
right now, the eyes of the whole world are turning
toward the Milano -Cortina region in Italy for
the Winter Olympics. Everyone's watching these
athletes chase gold medals. Right, but while
those skiers are flying down the slopes, the
dairy farmers in that exact same region, I mean
literally in the valleys right below the ski
runs, they're winning a completely different
game. They are pulling in 22 .8 billion euros
from less milk. From less milk. Well, farmers
over here are stuck on what I always call the
hamster wheel of more cows, thinner checks. Well,
today we're cutting through all that noise. I
was looking at the February WASDE numbers. And
let me tell you, the math isn't math -in for
a lot of operations right now. It really, really
isn't. So today's deep dive is a direct comparison.
We're putting the U .S. and Canadian volume first
model in the ring against the Italian value added
model, specifically looking at the Parmigiano
-Reggiano and Grana Padano zones. OK, so let's
set the stage a little bit before we get into
the heavy hitting. Why does this matter right
now? Because I think a lot of listeners are looking
at their milk checks and feeling a little bit.
I don't know, gaslit. Is that the right word?
That is absolutely the right word. Look at the
context. The USDA February WASDE projection just
came out. They're pegging the 2026 all milk price
at what? $18 .95 per hundredweight? $18 .95.
Okay. I can almost hear the collective groan
from every tractor cab listening to this right
now. But here's the kicker. This is the part
that really gets me. We pulled the analysis from
the bullvine and we looked at the farm doc data
out of Illinois. The full cost break games. And
I mean, full cost, you know. So not just a feed
bill. No, no. We're talking living expenses,
paying family labor, a real market rate, debt
service, replacing that worn out skid steer that's
on its last legs. All of it. All of it. Those
break homes are sitting somewhere between 1950
and 2050 per hundred weight. So do the math for
me. If I'm a standard midsize herd, let's say
250 cows, and I'm hitting the midpoint of that
break -even range. You are staring down a projected
loss of roughly $63 ,000 for the year 2026. Wow.
And that's if everything goes right, you know?
That's if the weather holds, the cows breed back
on the first try, and nothing major breaks down.
That's a lot of red ink. It's basically a full
-time job that costs you money to keep. And the
craziest part is the industry's response to this
seems to be just expand. The U .S. herd is projected
to be up another 211 ,000 cows in 2025. Exactly.
Margins are getting thinner, so the advice is
add more cows to try and make up the difference
on volume. It is the classic definition of the
volume trap. It's running faster and faster just
to stay in the exact same place. And that is
precisely why. This Italian comparison is so
fascinating because everyone in North America
thinks the only answer is get big or get out.
But today we are going to look at a country where
the number of dairy farms actually increased
because they figured out how to make small scale
pay. And we have to touch on the Canadian paradox,
too, because our friends to the north, they have
the quota, they have the scarcity, but they aren't
seeing that massive premium in the same way.
It's a different animal. All right, let's get
into it. Segment one, let's really define this
volume trap. We've got to identify the problem
before we can even think about fixing it. You
mentioned the hamster wheel. Yeah. So lay out
the U .S. data for us. What are we looking at
for 2026 production? It's just, it's still climbing.
We're looking at production hitting 234 .1 billion
pounds in 2026. I mean, we are just flooding
the world of milk. But the income overfeed costs
are tightening. They're squeezing down to around
$11 .40 per hundredweight. And, you know, the
usual argument here is, well, the big guys are
fine. The mega dairies are efficient. It's just
the small farms that are hurting. That's the
myth. That is the lie we tell ourselves to sleep
at night. But look at the USDA's cost of production
data. Even the so -called efficiency kings, you
know, the herds with 2 ,000 plus cows, the guys
with the rotaries and perfect feed efficiency,
their full economic cost is $19 .14 per hundredweight.
Wait, hang on, stop right there. So if the projected
price from the USDA is $18 .95. Even the 2 ,000
cow herds are barely breaking even. On a full
economic basis, they are technically underwater.
So they might be cash flowing. Oh, yeah, they're
cash flowing. But are they generating a true
economic profit? Are they actually building wealth
or are they just treading water? The numbers
say they're treading water. That is just wild.
It basically means the entire industry from the
50 cow tea stall to the 5000 cow mega dairy in
Idaho is operating on these razor thin, almost
non -existent margins. And the volatility is
the other thing that just kills you. Oh, absolutely.
The price dropped from 1925 in November. down
to 1825 in January, and now it's bounced back
to 1895 in February. For an average family farm,
that's a $70 ,000 whipsaw over just four months.
You can't budget on a roller coaster like that.
How do you plan an expansion or even just a simple
renovation when your revenue line looks like
an EKG readout? It's impossible. And this brings
up that whole concept of phantom profitability.
I think a lot of farmers, you know, they might
look at their checkbook and say, hey, there's
money in the account. I'm OK. Right. They see
a positive balance and they think they're winning.
But are they actually covering depreciation?
Are they putting money aside to replace assets?
Are they paying themselves a market wage for
their labor and management? Usually the answer
to all of those is no. Exactly. They are eating
their equity just to stay in business. They're
cannibalizing the farm to keep the farm going.
It's like burning the furniture to heat the house.
Eventually you're going to run out of chairs.
Exactly. And that is the crime scene. Okay, so
that's the gloom and doom. Now let's pivot and
look at the gold medal data, the Italian contrast.
Because this article claims they are winning
by doing the absolute opposite of what we're
doing. The numbers are staggering. In Italy,
the dairy industry revenue grew at a 1 .5 % compound
annual growth rate from 2020 to 2025. But here's
the key part. Milk volume dropped by 0 .7%. Revenue
up, volume down. That is the holy grail. That's
the definition of working smarter, not harder.
It is. And get this. The number of Italian dairy
businesses actually increased during that time
to about 4 ,043. That never happens. When was
the last time you heard of the number of dairy
farms actually going up in a developed nation?
Never. The story is always consolidation, consolidation,
consolidation. You hear about farms selling out
every single week. Not new ones starting up.
Right. But the heavy hitter here, the real powerhouse,
is Parmigiano -Reggiano. The turnover for that
consortium alone hit 3 .2 billion euros in 2024.
Okay, I have to play skeptic for a second here.
Go for it. Because I know what some of our listeners,
especially the hard -nosed economists, are thinking.
It's Italy. It's romantic. It's all about tourism.
Is this just because tourists want to eat fancy
cheese while they're on vacation in Rome? Is
this some kind of Mickey Mouse economy based
on people taking selfies with a wheel of cheese?
That's a fair question, and I expected you to
push back on that. It's the obvious first thought,
but the data says no. It's not just tourism.
Not even close. Look at the exports. Italian
cheese export volume was up 2 .2%, which is,
you know, it's decent. Okay, pretty good. But
the value of those exports, up 20 .4%. Whoa.
Okay, so they're selling just a little bit more
cheese, but for a whole lot more money. Precisely.
The U .S. alone bought 16 ,000 tons of it in
2024, which was up 13 .4%. This isn't just people
eating cheese in Venice. This is a structural
price premium that travels across the ocean.
A consumer in Chicago or Tokyo is walking past
the local commodity cheddar and paying double
for that Italian seal of authenticity. So what
they've really done is decommoditize their milk.
They aren't selling milk as a fluid commodity
anymore. They're selling... Something else entirely.
100%. They're selling heritage, they're selling
a specific guaranteed quality, and they're selling
scarcity. Okay, let's follow the money then.
How does this premium actually stick? How does
it get from the consumer in Chicago back to the
farmer in Italy? Because usually if a product
gets that expensive, someone undercuts you. or
the market floods with cheap knockoffs. If I
start selling hay for 400 bucks a ton, my neighbor
starts selling it for 350. Right. And the article
breaks it down into these three core pillars.
And this is really the playbook. First, you have
geographic scarcity. That's the PDO, the protected
designation of origin. Right. So you legally
cannot make something and call it Parmigiano
-Reggiano unless your cows are in that specific
region of Italy eating that specific forage.
Correct. It's not just a brand name. It's enshrined
in European law. It creates a legal monopoly
on the name and the process. And the data on
this is incredible. PDO products, on average,
get a 2 .23 times value premium over non -GI
products. So more than double the value. Just
for having that geographic seal. Just for that.
But it's not just about drawing a circle on a
map, right? You can't just do that and expect
money to fall from the sky. Right. There has
to be organization behind it. And that's pillar
number two, the consortiums. The Parmigiano Consortium
has a budget of 51 .5 million euros. 51 .5 million.
That is a massive war chest that's bigger than
the GDP of some small island nations. They are
the marketing department. An individual farmer
doesn't have to worry about branding their milk
because the consortium is doing it at a global
scale. They're the ones fighting the legal battles
against copycats, running the TV ads, and sending
inspectors out to check the quality on every
farm. And the third pillar. This is the one that
really hurts when you compare it to the U .S.
system. It's the link. There's direct link. Farmgate
prices in Italy rise when the price of the cheese
rises. Okay, let's really unpack this. Because
in the U .S. we have the FMMO. the federal milk
marketing orders. And frankly, most farmers need
a PhD just to understand their own milk check.
It's intentionally complex. Oh, it is. In the
U .S., we pool it. My high -component milk from
my Jersey herd gets dumped into the same pool
as my neighbor's lower -component Holstein milk.
It all becomes generic. And even if the price
of cheddar cheese on the CME skyrockets, the
processor is guaranteed what's called a make
allowance. And by the way, that make allowance
is set to rise to over 25 cents a pound in June
2025. Stop right there. Explain make allowance
to me like I'm five years old. Why does that
specific thing matter so much to a farmer's bottom
line? Okay, simple analogy. Think of a pizza.
The processor, the guy making the cheese, gets
to eat his slices of the pizza first. The government
guarantees him enough slices to cover all his
costs. The boiler, the labor, the packaging,
that guaranteed portion is the make allowance.
Okay, so he's always fed. He always eats first.
If the pizza gets smaller because the market
price drops, the processor still gets his guaranteed
number of slices. So, who starves? The farmer.
The farmer gets whatever crusts and crumbs are
left over. The U .S. system, deliberately, by
design, severs the link between my specific milk
quality and the end product's value. The processor
is insulated from risk. The farmer is completely
exposed to it. That is the crucial difference.
In Italy, if Parmigiano is selling for 13 euros
a kilo, the farmer sees that money flow back
to them. In the U .S., if cheto prices go up,
the processor covers their guaranteed margin,
and the farmer gets, well, whatever the complicated
FMMO formula spits out at the end of the month.
Exactly. We are incentivized to produce generic
white fluid at the lowest possible cost. They
are incentivized to produce a very specific ingredient
for a luxury product. In Italy, the farmer and
the cheesemaker are in the same boat, rowing
in the same direction. In the U .S., the cheesemaker
is on a yacht, and the farmer is swimming behind
it, trying not to drown. Okay, so we can't all
just pack up and move to Italy. I mean, the pasta
is great, but the commute would be terrible.
So let's talk about some case studies and examples
that are closer to home. What about North American
attempts at this value -added model? There are
some really bright spots, for sure, but they
all come with some pretty big caveats. Let's
take Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont. A legend. If
you're into cheese, you know the name Jasper
Hill. Absolutely. And they pay their partner
farms roughly three times the commodity price
for their milk. Three times. That's not just
a little better. That's life -changing money.
It is. Mateo Keller, one of the founders, has
said that a family can make a good living with
25 to 30 cows under their model. Think about
that. 25 cows supporting a family in the year
2026. That sounds like a dream. It does. But,
and there's always a but. Here it comes. It took
them 20 years to build that brand and that infrastructure.
They have a massive debt load from building their
aging caves. And here's the really wild part.
They have a housing crisis for their employees
because Vermont is so full of second homes owned
by people from New York and Boston. Kaler has
had to personally buy 11 properties just to have
places for his staff to live. So it's not just
make good cheese and get rich. It's... build
a massive multi -million dollar infrastructure,
take on huge personal risk, and then also become
a real estate mogul and property manager on the
side. Right. It's an incredibly high barrier
to entry. And then you've got Uplands Cheese
in Wisconsin, another fantastic example. Same
deal. Their wholesale price is four times commodity
cheddar. We're talking $10 a pound versus $2
.50. But they're extremely seasonal, right? Pasture
only, which means limited volume. You can't just
scale that up to feed the world. You can't graze
cows in three feet of Wisconsin snow in January.
It's a niche, not a national solution. Okay,
now here's where I want to bring up the contrarian
take, the Canadian paradox, because you and I
talk about this a lot. Canada has supply management.
They have quotas. Isn't that by definition organized
scarcity? Isn't that basically what the Italians
are doing? You would think so. I mean, on the
surface, it's the same foundational principle
as the PDO. Limit the supply to match the demand
to support the price. But the outcome and the
philosophy behind it are totally different. How
so? Why aren't Canadian dairy farmers all driving
Ferraris? Because Canada has scarcity for stability.
Italy has scarcity for value. Okay, that's a
cute distinction. Walk me through what that means
on the ground. In Canada, the quota is incredibly
expensive. We're talking $24 ,000 to $56 ,000
per kilogram of butterfat, depending on the province.
But that investment buys you the right to produce
milk at a regulated floor price. It guarantees
you won't lose your shirt. So it's safety net.
It's a very expensive safety net. But it doesn't
incentivize you to make a Mercedes -Benz product.
just guarantees a decent, stable price for a
Honda Civic product. It removes the downside
risk, but it also caps the upside potential.
It's a defensive wall, not an offensive weapon.
Perfectly put. And the data shows that consolidation
is still happening there too. Canadian farm numbers
dropped 24 % between 2012 and 2022. It's slower
than in the U .S. for sure, but the trend is
exactly the same. And here's the real kicker.
CETA. The trade agreement with Europe. This is
where the whole paradox really bites them. Sida
allowed a certain amount of European cheese to
come into Canada duty -free. Right. So now the
Canadian consumer walks into the grocery store.
On the left, they see a block of generic Canadian
cheddar produced under the protection of a quota
system. On the right, they see a wedge of real
Parmigiano -Reggiano protected by a powerful,
world -renowned brand. Which one do you think
they're buying for their dinner party? They're
buying the brand. They're buying the story. Every
time. So Canadian farmers are losing market share
inside their own fortress because they have the
scarcity, but they don't have the value proposition
to go with it. It's so ironic. The European cheese
is winning in the protected Canadian market because
of its brand, while the Canadian milk is just
milk. Exactly. And look, there are amazing outliers
like Gunshill in Ontario who are doing incredible
work with artisanal cheese, but they are succeeding.
despite the system or around the edges of it,
not because the system is designed to create
a thousand guns hills. So, okay, we've identified
the problem, this hamster wheel of volume. We've
seen the promised land in Italy. We've seen the
difficulties of trying to replicate it here.
Let's talk about the future implications. The
article outlines four distinct paths forward.
And I like this because it's practical. It acknowledges
that not everyone can just go out and build a
cheese plant tomorrow. Yeah, we need solutions
for the guy who isn't going to become a full
-time cheesemaker. Let's break them down. Path
number one, component optimization. The article
calls this the band -aid. This is the low -hanging
fruit. This is what every nutritionist and consultant
tells you to do. Get your protein up. Get your
fat up. The math shows that raising protein from,
say, a 3 -1 to a 3 -4 for a 200 -cow herd, that's
maybe an extra $8 ,640 a year in premiums. I
mean, $8 ,000 is $8 ,000. That'll pay the electric
bill for a month or two. But when you break it
down per hundredweight, that's barely 18 cents.
If your breaking gap is $1 .50 like we established
at the beginning, earning an extra 18 cents is
nice, but it doesn't solve the structural problem.
It's like finding some change in the couch cushions
when you're trying to pay the mortgage. It's
exactly that. You should absolutely do it. Don't
get me wrong. But don't fool yourself into thinking
it saves the farm. Okay. Path number two. Farmstead
cheese. This is what the article calls the heavy
lift. This is the far move. You are looking at
an investment of anywhere from $750 ,000 to $1
.2 million to build a modern licensed creamery.
Oof. That's a lot of zeros. That's a lot of debt.
And the timeline to even break even is three
to five years. You have to learn a whole new
trade. You're not just a farmer anymore. Suddenly
you're a manufacturer, a marketer, a food safety
expert, a brand manager. So you need incredibly
deep pockets just to get in the game. And you
need a high tolerance for risk. The data shows
that 24 % of artisan cheesemakers in the U .S.
gross under $50 ,000 a year. So just because
you build it doesn't mean they'll come. Not at
all. If you make bad cheese, you just have a
very, very expensive pile of waste that you're
paying interest on. It's a huge gamble. All right.
That one's scary. What about path three? The
collective consortium. This feels like the middle
ground. This is the one that really intrigues
me the most. The idea here is that instead of
one farm trying to do it all, you get, say, 20
farms to go in together and share the infrastructure.
So instead of one farm spending $1 .2 million,
you have 20 farms splitting that cost. Suddenly
the investment per farm drops to maybe $60 ,000
or $70 ,000. Now that is much more manageable.
That's in the ballpark of a new pickup truck
or a used tractor. Right. And there's actually
money available for this. The USDA has $11 million
in new grants as of January 2026, specifically
for this kind of collective value added development.
So the government is actually trying to nudge
people in this direction. A little bit, yeah.
But it requires farmers to work together in a
way they're historically not very good at. You
have to give up your individual ego for the good
of the collective brand. Which is really hard
for independent minded farmers. We all like to
be the king of our own little castle. It's very
hard. But the question is, would you rather be
the king of a castle that's sinking into the
swamp or a valued partner in a castle that's
profitable and secure? Touche. Okay, final one.
Path four. Demographic specialty. The article
calls this the sleeper hit. This is the one I'm
watching the closest. Specifically, Hispanic
cheeses. Talk to me about the numbers here. Why
is this a sleeper? Why isn't this mainstream
yet? It's getting there, but the growth is explosive.
It's growing anywhere from 2 to 27 times faster
than mainstream cheese categories. And you just
have to look at the changing demographics of
North America. The Hispanic population is booming,
especially in rural areas. And the beauty of
a lot of these cheeses, like queso fresco, Oaxaca,
panela... is that they're fresh cheeses. So you
don't need a million dollar aging cave. No aging
cave. No sitting on inventory for two years waiting
for it to mature while you pay interest on it.
You can make it on a Monday and sell it at a
farmer's market on a Friday. The cash flow cycle
is so much faster than waiting 24 months for
a cheddar to sharp up. That is a huge, huge advantage
for a small operations cash flow. Massive. And
it's not just demographics. Gen Z is driving
this too, right? Yeah, the data says 71 % of
Gen Z consumers purchase specialty cheese. They
want authenticity. They want unique flavors.
They don't just want that boring orange block.
So if you're located anywhere near an urban center
or a community with a growing Hispanic population,
this is a green light. It's a flashing green
light on the dashboard. You don't need a PDO
from the 1400s to make fantastic queso fresco.
You just need high quality milk and to know your
customer. I love that. It's so practical. Now
let's get into our contrarian take section. We
need to challenge some of the big industry narratives
here. Let's do it. The world narrative. The big
U .S. dairy lobby groups, NMPF, USDEC, they often
frame these European geographic indications,
these GIs, as nothing more than trade barriers.
Right. They claim Europe is cheating the system.
They do. The official line is that Europe is
just being protectionist and unfair. How dare
they tell us we can't call our mass -produced
cheese Parmesan? But is it really unfair if it's
working so well for their farmer? That's my whole
argument. You can call it a barrier if you want.
You can call it protectionism. But it's a barrier
that pays farmers enough to make a profit. It
results in cheese that sells for 11 euros a kilogram.
So maybe, just maybe, instead of spending millions
of dollars lobbying to tear down their walls,
we should stop and ask, why are - we building
our own walls? Why aren't we building our own
value fortresses around things we do uniquely
well? Why are we so obsessed with being the low
-cost provider of a generic commodity for the
world when the world is clearly telling us it
wants to pay a premium for something special?
We're trying to sell commodity volume into a
world that is screaming for premium value. It's
like we're bringing a knife to a gunfight. Exactly.
And you don't even need a full -blown GI to see
the effect. Look at the California seal program.
Real California milk. It's not a strict PDO,
but just having that seal of origin on the package
drove a 6 .3 % sales spread over products without
it. Just by putting a sticker on the package.
People care where their food comes from. The
data shows 56 % of consumers actively seek out
authenticity seals. We are leaving so much money
on the table by ignoring that fundamental desire.
We are hiding the farm from the consumer and
the consumer is punishing us for it at the checkout.
So we've covered a ton of ground here. We've
looked at the tragedy of the U .S. volume model,
the triumph of the Italian volume model, and
the confusing middle ground up in Canada. Yeah.
But we always like to leave our listeners with
something they can actually do with this information.
Right. Practical steps. Because complaining about
the milk price doesn't change the milk price.
Action does. All right. Let's role play this.
A farmer just finished the morning milking. They
wiped off their boots, hopefully scraped them
off first. They're driving to the feed store
right now, listening to us. What are the three
things they need to write on the back of a receipt
right now? Okay. Grab a pen. Or open the notes
app on your phone. Here we go. Number one. Something
to do this week. The audit. The action is calculate
your real break -even. Define real. Because I
know guys who, you know, they leave certain things
out to make the numbers look better. I mean,
stop lying to yourself. stop cooking the books
to make yourself feel better at the end of the
month you have to include family labor if you
got hit by a bus tomorrow and had to hire someone
to do your job what would that cost put that
number in the spreadsheet You have to include
principal payments on your loans, not just the
interest. And you have to include your family
living expenses. And what do you do when you
get that number and it's $20 .50? If you're sitting
at $20 .50 and the market is at $18 .95, you
have to look yourself in the mirror and admit
that you have a structural problem. You do not
have an efficiency problem. You cannot milk your
way out of that hole. with more volume. You need
to change the game you're playing. You need to
stop thinking about expanding and start thinking
about how to pivot. That is a hard truth, but
a necessary one. Yeah. Okay, number two, medium
term, the pivot. Let's say three to six months
out. Investigate path four or path three. Start
looking seriously at that demographic specialty
cheese market or the consortium model. What's
the specific action? Who do I call? What do I
Google? Start by looking for a specialty cheese
processor within 100 miles of your farm. See
who's already making these products. Or better
yet, go to your next co -op meeting, raise your
hand, and ask the hard question. We're spending
millions on new stainless steel. Are we doing
anything with that investment to make high -value
cheese? Or are we just building bigger tanks
to hold more commodity milk that we're going
to sell at a loss? Put them on the spot. I like
that. And check the demographics. Google the
census data for your county. Is there a growing
Hispanic population nearby? That demand signal
is there. If your current processor isn't seeing
it, maybe you need to find one that is. Or maybe
you need to find 19 of your neighbors and start
that consortium yourselves. Okay. Number three,
long term. Thinking one to two years out. The
investment. The action is a balance sheet stress
test. What does that mean in plain English? It
means if you're seriously considering path to
going all in on a farmstead cheese operation,
you need to ask yourself a very blunt question.
Do you have 42 months of working capital? 42
months. That's three and a half years. That is
an eternity in dairy years. That's the reality.
That's how long it can take to build your inventory,
build your brand, get into stores and actually
get paid. If you don't have that kind of capital
sitting in the bank, then you need to be looking
for those USDA DBI grants. You need to be looking
for outside partners. You cannot go into that
kind of venture alone and undercapitalized. And
I'm going to add my own take here for the long
term. If you want the Italian margins. You have
to be willing to accept the Italian discipline.
Yes, that is the absolute key. That means accepting
quality over quantity. That means potentially
participating in collective marketing where you
are not the star. The regional brand is the star.
It means giving up a little bit of your fierce
independence for a whole lot more financial security.
That's the reality check right there. Italy is
playing chess with branding and heritage, and
we're still playing checkers with volume. And
right now, the checkers board is getting flipped
over every time the USDA releases a new report.
It certainly feels that way sometimes. This has
been a heavy one, but I actually think it's a
hopeful one if you look at the opportunities.
The door isn't closed. We just need to start
walking through a different one. Absolutely.
The money is there. The consumer wants this kind
of product. We just have to build the bridge
to get it to them. This has been another Bullvine
podcast from The Bullvine Podcast. For more straight
-talking industry analysis and to check the full
math on those four paths we talked about today,
head over to www .thebullvine .com. It really
is the home of no BS dairy analysis. And be sure
to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
We're out with new episodes every single day.
Coming up next, we're looking at why all that
new stainless steel processing capacity being
built might not actually save your milk check.
You won't want to miss that one. Stay profitable
out there. See you next time.