Have high dairy prices caused you to cut back on dairy goods?

[NickB79]

If yes, what are you cutting back on in particular?

I ask because I work for a large dairy plant that produces cup yogurt, sour cream, cottage cheese, tube yogurt, and yogurt smoothie drinks, and I'm wondering how recession may affect our business (and my job security).

[Benhurst]

1. I only buy items on sale now.

[uppityperson]

2. Ice cream went a while back. Still drinking milk in coffee/cooking. Cheese, wow

If it gets bad enough am considering finding local goat, or getting one of my own, though I can do without a lot of milk now. I feel sorry for city dwellers.

Edited to add that my main cutback is cheese. I love cheese but have begun to cut back on it. Costco still offers 5 lb blocks at under $3 a pound, but I can see dropping back on that when prices go higher.

[Matariki]

26. have you ever milked a goat?

those little buggers are a *lot* of work to milk.

[uppityperson]

29. I have, more manageable than a cow.

And I had to drink the milk within a day or so, then turn it into yogurt and/or cheese and/or animal food.

[Matariki]

30. I wouldn't have to mow my lawn if I had a goat, would I?

hmmm, wonder if my neighbors would complain. Hmmm, a goat, a couple of chickens...

[uppityperson]

40. Or fertilize it. And think of the money you'd save on no buying flowers to plant!

All sorts of positive things. Actually, I'd like to have a Nigerian Dwarf goat. They look like regular goats but are tiny, as opposed to those pot belly pygmy goats.

[Fireweed247]

3. I only buy tillamook cheese

Bgh has already lessened my dairy purchases.
Prices and the future outlook are making me want my own cow though...

[newfie11]

4. No

I still buy milk, yogurt, and butter.

[dysfunctional press]

5. no.

nt

[AlCzervik]

6. "tube yogurt" i'm not sure i even want to know what that is.

and i'm lactose intolerant so i buy soy milk for me and segular for my daughter and we don't use much buuter at all, maybe a poun every 2 months.

[uppityperson]

10. Ever have Otter Pops as a kid? Like that.

It is a tube with yogurt in it. I buy them on sale ($1-1.30 a pack of 8), then freeze them for frozen yogurt snack.

[AlCzervik]

11. oh yeah, ok thanks for explaining that.

[kestrel91316]

7. I still buy milk, butter, eggs, yogurt (or make my own yogurt).

I buy organic when the budget allows, preferably CA-source. Dairy is still relatively cheap protein for what you get. I am very careful to not waste.

I think the "value-added" (aka junk-food-ized) dairy products might get less popular. But demand for the basics will stay where it is or even increase as some folks phase out meat.

So saith kestrel the Oracle.

[shain from kane]

8. "Indeed, of all the mammals, only humans--and then only a minority, principally

Caucasians--continue to drink milk beyond babyhood."


--- From the internets, and the subject of numerous discussions.

[eShirl]

9. we're actually buying more dairy now

and cutting wayyyy back on meat

Also, I'm mostly baking from scratch now (the blueberry corn muffins I made this morning called for milk, for example). My brother got a better yogurt maker and gave me his old one, so I'm going to try that soon, too.

[peacefreak]

12. I buy a quart of milk as opposed to a half gallon

and use it only for coffee. I comparison shop for cheese. Cabot Creamery is my favorite, but going up every time I check. I use butter sparingly. So yes, my habits have changed.

[Fleshdancer]

13. We're not cutting down on our dairy, we're just purchasing it a little differently...

Unfortunately I haven't been buying as much organic milk as I usually do but we are buying the cheaper stuff. We no longer buy the packages of shredded cheese because we now buy them in big blocks. I still buy yogurt, but I don't get my daughter the "kids" yogurt products anymore. Now she eats what I eat.

I hope this helps!

[supernova]

14. I'm lactose intolerant

so I don't buy any fresh dairy at all.

I buy butter occasionally for toast (also wheat/gluten sensitive, so I don't buy that anymore either) and still have some of that.

I do occasionally buy a piece of parm. Harder/older cheeses have very little lactose remaining. So eh. 5-7$ worth/month. :shrug:

The one thing I really miss is Greek style yogurt. If I could make lactose free Greek yogurt, I'd die a happy woman.

Now, I rely on my vitamins and supplements and greens.

[LanternWaste]

15. I've gone from...

I've gone from about one gallon of milk a week to half a gallon of milk. I'm rationing butter like it's WW2, and forget cheese-- it's a splurge I can't afford.

I still by cream cheese for my bagels-- but as it takes me so long to go through a tub of that anyway, it's not really an issue.

I miss my big, giant cup of chocolate milk before bed :(

[whistle]

16. I buy where I get best prices

[Mountainman]

17. I don't buy much dairy. Just some cheese occasionally.

[WCIL]

18. We have made some changes

We don't buy as much milk as we used to, and will soon use even less as our son leaves this fall for college. We have had to switch to store brand cheese, butter, sour cream and cup yogurts, and never purchased the yogurt tubes or drinkable yogurts. We used to make special trips to the Whole Foods 3 hours away and buy artisan cheeses and imported butter, but those days are behind us.

[Jimbo S]

19. No changes.

Each week I still get a half-gallon skim and a loaf of bread.

[orleans]

20. i admit i haven't cut back on dairy at all.

i buy hormone free milk as much as i can (when the local store has it or i got to whole foods--which is most of the time). if i run out then i get regular milk at the seven 11. yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese, sour cream & cream all purchased as much as ever.

orleans: purchasing hard for nickb79's job

[pitohui]

21. yes we've had to cut back

no more yogurt, cottage cheese, or sour cream -- the three items you mention! the entire dairy budget is now consumed by milk and (hard) cheese, the little frills like yogurt/sour cream are gone :cry:

[LWolf]

22. I haven't cut back,

but the only dairy I buy is hard cheese.

[Contrary1]

23. No cutbacks here either...

I buy when dairy products are on sale. Last week, milk was $1.00 per half gallon at Kroger's, when 4 were purchased. Right now, I have 6 gallons in the freezer. I also buy butter in bulk, slice it up in about 1/4 pound chunks and freeze.

I use buttermilk for biscuits and pancakes. I buy it on sale and freeze in an ice cube tray. I put the frozen cubes in a freezer bag, and have it down to a science as to how many cubes I need to thaw out. Same thing for coffee creamer.

Now, if I could only figure out a way to freeze fresh eggs, I would be all set.

[Chovexani]

31. Someone after my own heart

I'm the queen of "buy it on sale and freeze it".

Fortunately I live alone, so I can get away with buying smaller containers of milk. A quart of hormone-free 2% milk does me good for a little bit, unless I'm making something that requires a lot of milk.

[RB TexLa]

24. No, same amount of cream for coffee and cooking and cheese

[Raejeanowl]

25. I'll Probably Rethink Everything

It isn't just dairy prices skyrocketing, you know, so it has to be placed in context. My number one change, I think, will be to shop more frequently and waste less. Second, I'll be looking at soy products and a semi-vegetarian diet all over again.

Yogurt is an important part of my diet, and skim milk for my family in general, so I don't see that changing. I do try to shop sales. What I feel I must be more judicious about is cheese, which I don't think is all that good for you anyway, and yogurt smoothie drinks, which were never a nutritional or monetary bargain.

[magellan]

27. Can't speak to the yogurts and other things your plant produces

...as we don't buy them often. But we haven't cut back on milk and cheese.

Hoping the best for you, hard times coming.

[lonestarnot]

28. Only buy what's on sale.

[avenger64]

32. I eat eggs, and some cheese ...

... in moderate amounts, and I haven't cut back. But my friend manages a pizza parlor, and he says that cheese prices are killing them. Not to mention http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/19/smbusiness/Chernoff_pizza/index.htm?postversion=2008031912">wheat now that we're (stupidly) trying to maintain the happy motoring paradigm by subsidizing ethanol.

[pitohui]

34. yeah cheese has gone crazy!

but i have to have it, as i have osteoporosis risk in my family and calcium from the supplements, according to my doctor, simply isn't well absorbed by the body

i believe him because my mom took the supplements for decades, since the early 70s at least, and she's got a horrible problem with it anyway -- she didn't eat cheese because she thinks she can't digest cheese, sigh

apparently calcium taken without any fat, in a pill, is useless, so it's whole milk and good cheese for me even tho i want to cry every time i go shopping

[avenger64]

35. Wow, I take calcium-magnesium supplements, and ...

... I didn't know about the fat requirement - that's interesting. I do know the supplements have worked wonders for the heart palpitations I used to have.

[newfie11]

37. Magnesium does work wonders on heart palpitations!

Glad you found out about it.

[pitohui]

38. yeah that's the magnesium i think

calcium is best absorbed in the presence of vitamin D and fat

[avenger64]

39. Then I better stick with the cheese.

I have an auto-immune disorder, and I think calcium deficiency has something to do with it.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

33. No

I still eat cheese, cook with yogurt, and put milk on my cereal.

[Solly Mack]

36. No